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Between quest and conquest: Elizabethan romances of Ireland and the New World

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Between quest and conquest: Elizabethan romances of Ireland and the New World

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B ETW EEN QUEST A N D C O N Q U E ST: E L IZ A B E T H A N R O M A N C E S OF IR E L A N D A N D T H E N E W W O R LD by Laura Em ily Sanders A Dissertation Presented to th e F A C U L T Y O F TH E G R A D U A TE SCHO O L U N IV E R S IT Y O F SO U TH ER N C A L IF O R N IA in P artial F u lfillm e n t o f the Requirem ents for the Degree D O C TO R OF PH ILO SO PH Y (English) August 1998 © Laura Em ily Sanders Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9919102 Copyright 1999 by Sanders, Laura Emily All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9919102 Copyright 1999, hy UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMVERSTTY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THE (SADUATE SCHOOL UMVERSnYPABK LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90089 This dissertation, written hy Laura Emily Sanders under the direction of h...^..... Dissertation Committee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by The Graduate School in partial fulfUlment of re quirements for tiie degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY C T \0 — V Dt an c t S t U D IS S eyA TIO N CO M M rriEE y / - <g> Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11 To M o rg an Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I l l CONTENTS C hapter 1 In tro d u ctio n 1 C hapter 2 "To use m en as m en are": Sidney's R om antic C olony in A rcadia 22 C h ap ters D om ination By Inclusion: The Rom antic C artography o f S ir W alter Ralegh 50 C hapter 4 H o w to Fashion a G entle C olonizer: Conquest and Consent in The Faerie O ueene Book V 80 C hapter 5 M apping the M istress: Donne's Reversal o f the C olonizing C ourtier Trope in Elegy 19 110 E pilogue 143 B ibliography 145 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. IV ABSTRACT Elizabethan romances and explo ration accounts o f the late sixteenth century both feature the intersection o f quest and conquest Faced w ith th e ir repeated in a b ility to conquer new lands, the English tu rn to romance to recast th eir fa ilu re as m erely tem porary; by ham ing defeat as sim ply p a rt of a m uch larg er, unfinished cycle, the rom ance form delays the end an d thus provides the p o ten tial fo r fu tu re victory. H ow ever, portraying attem pts at colonization as ch ivalric quests also requires Elizabethan explorers to be noble heroes who act w ith the consent o f N ew W orld natives. Investigating the uneasy a llia n ce between the English desire fo r pow er over natives and the sim ultaneous desire for approval from them , Laura E m ily Sanders examines a variety o f texts in form ed by ch ivalric rom ance and colonial fa ilu re. The most significant trope in these works is w h at she deems the "colonizing co u rtier," a m an w ho onbodies both the m ilita ry aggression to conquer foreign lands and the inborn grace to charm the natives in to acquiescence. The colonizing courtier trope appears in m any texts w o rttiy o f investigation. C hapter Tw o, " T o use m en as m en are': Sidney's Rom antic Colony in A rcadia," situates Sidney's text w ith in the threatened state o f his court connections and N ew W orld investm ents. C hapter Three, "D o m in atio n by Inclusion: The Rom antic Cartography o f S ir W alter Ralegh," explores how Ralegh disregards geographical borders established by Spain to portray his voyage to G uiana as a rom antic quest to save natives. C hapter Four, "H o w to Fashion a G entle C olonizer: Conquest and Consent in The Faerie Oueene Book V ," considers Edm und Spenser's rom ance in lig h t o f his personal colonial am bitions in Ire la n d and the fear th at only n ative consent prevents English colonizers from degenerating into the m uch-hated Spanish conquistadors. C hapter Five, "M ap p in g the Xfistress: D onne's Reversal of the C olonizing C ou rtier Trope in Elegy 19," exam ines how Donne inverts the "land as w om an" trope to em phasize the self-serving nature o f colonial "com passion." Donne's w o rk m arks the decline o f colonizing courtier trajectory, as England stands on the verge o f a perm anent N ew W o rld settlem ent and ch ivalric rom ance declines in po pu larity on the eve o f Elizabeth's death. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 1: Introduction Between Quest and Conquest: Elizabethan Romances of Ireland and the New World In this w ork, I seek to exam ine the intersection o f quest and conquest in Elizabethan romances and early English exploration accounts o f the late sixteenth century. The first h a lf o f m y title unites both the historical and theoretical aspects o f m y research. In the 1590s, crusading knights on chivalric quests w ere very m uch in England's past, and the efficient colonizers w ho conquered vast te rrito ry to create the B ritish em pire in the nineteenth century d id not yet exist, but not fo r a lack o f trying. Despite th eir repeated efforts, English explorers had v irtu a lly no success in expanding th eir borders. In his 1582 "D ivers Voyages touching the D iscoverie of A m erica, and the Islands adjacent unto the same, m ade firs t o f a ll by o u r Englishm en, and afterw ards by the Frenchm en and Britons," R ichard H a k lu y t w rites; 1 m arvel n o t a little th a t since the firs t discovery o f A m erica (w h ich is now fu ll fourscore and ten years) a fte r so great conquest and p lan tin g o f the Spaniards and the Portingales there, th a t are o f E ngland could never have the grace to set fast footing in such fe rtile and tem perate Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. places as are le ft as yet unpossessed by th em .i D uring the late sixteenth century, England co n tro lled o n ly a m inuscule portion o f N e w W o rld te rrito ry and had great d iffic u lty sim p ly keeping its colonists abroad. A fte r staying in Roanoke less than a year, the entire population o f the o rig in a l V irg in ia colony fle d aboard the vis itin g ship o f S ir Francis D rake in 1586 because they were frightened by an oncom ing storm . Founded in 1587, the second colony, know n fo r V irg in ia D are and the m ysterious disappearance o f its inhabitants, was o ffic ia lly deem ed lost in 1590.2 Despite the pleading o f BÜchard H ak lu yt, John D ee, and W alter Ralegh, E lizabeth d id not in vest in colonization schemes; she focused h er efforts on the English C hannel, no t the A tla n tic Ocean. As a resu lt, her pragm atic priorities produced a strikin g contrast between Spanish an d English attem pts a t em pire, as H o w ard M u m fo rd Jones rem arks: "W hen in 1585 a fo rlo rn little band of Englishm en w ere tryin g to stick it out on Roanoke Islan d , three I A . L. Rowse, The Expansion o f E lizabethan E ngland (N ew York: H arper Torchbooks, 1955), p . 210. 2 V irg in ia D are, granddaughter o f V irg in ia n g o verno r John W hite was the firs t English ch ild bom in the N e w W o rld . W hen he returned to the colony after a three-year absence, he found pieces of colonists' guns and the dam aged contents o f once-hidden chests strew n about, along w ith the letters "CRO" w ritte n on a tree. See Rowse, p. 219. Recent studies suggest the colonists w ere attem p tin g to settle in Roanoke d u rin g its w orst drought in the past 800 years. " If the English had tried to fin d a w orse tim e to launch th eir settlem ent in the N ew W orld, they co uld n o t have done so," w rites D erm is B. Blantoru Robert Lee H o tz, "D rou ght M ay Have Doom ed F irst C olonists," Los A ngeles Tim es 24 A p ril 1998:1+. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. hu nd red poets w ere com peting fo r a p rize in M exico C ity ."3 Spain and P ortugal had already b u ilt th eir overseas em pires, but often the closest England came to the N ew W o rld w as through its un o fficial program o f p ira tin g returning ships, laden w ith exotic treasures. Faced w ith th eir repeated in a b ility to conquer new lands, Elizabethans tu rn to romance to recast th eir fa ilu re as m erely tem porary; by fram in g defeat as sim ply part o f a m uch larger, unfinished cycle, the rom ance fo rm delays an u ltim ate ending and thus provides the potential for fu tu re vic to ry. H o w ever, p o rtrayin g English attem pts a t co lon izatio n as a chivalric quest also requires E lizabethan explorers to be noble heroes w ho always act w ith the consent o f N e w W orld natives. Thus, gentlem en-explorers present them selves as kn igh t-errants on a m ission to lib erate , not oppress the natives tlie y encounter; they depict the Spanish conquistadors as the true other. I focus on a variety o f texts in form ed by chivalric rom ance and colonial fa ilu re : S ir P hilip Sidney^s A rcadia, S ir W alter Ralegh's "D iscovery o f the Large, R ich and B eautiful Em pire o f G uiana," Edm und Spenser's Faerie O ueene Book V, and John Dorm e's Elegy 19. I investigate the uneasy alliéince betw een the English desire fo r p o w er over natives and the sim ultaneous desire fo r approval from them . The m ost significant trope in the these texts is w h at I deem the "colonizing co u rtier," a m an who embodies both the 3quoted in Jeffrey K napp, E m pire Now here: E ngland, A m erica, and Literature from Utopia to The Tempest. (Berkeley: U C Press, 1992), p. 2. Reproduced w«h permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. m ilita ry aggression to conquer foreign lands and the inborn grace to charm the natives in to acquiescence. W hile critics have read early m odem literatu re in term s o f early colonialism , they have not traced the connections betw een colonialism and the d rive to construct in d iv id u a l and national id e n tity through the discourse o f courtesy. The Inadequacy o f P ost-C olonial Approaches fo r th is Project 1 seek to contextualize these w orks w ith in a historical fram ew ork that acknowledges early m odem England's inconsistent approach to colonialism . England's colonial discourse in the sixteenth century d iffers greatly from its discourse in the nineteenth century. M uch o f w h at is considered given (p articu larly England's position as an unquestionable global force) sim ply does not ho ld fo r the E lizabethan period. Throughout this book, I refer to the w ork o f post-colonial critics lik e E dw ard Said, H o m i K . Bhabha, G ayatri C hakravorty Spivak, and D avid Spurr. H ow ever, a ll o f these critics focus on the consequences o f a pre-existing (though perhaps m oribund) system o f colonization. To speak o f m y w o rk as post-colonial w o uld render it m erely a preface to tw entieth-cen tu ry studies, valuable on ly as it privileges another field . W h ile I do hope th at m y research resonates beyond the early m odem period, I consider m y colonial focus a central com ponent o f studies in late sixteenth-century England. Post-colonial theories o f subjugation and dom ination, w h ile valuable, are not sufficient fo r this period because they presuppose a colonial pow er structure th at Elizabethans have yet to establish. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I propose th at sixteenth-century English categories o f race, class, gender, and in digenity in Irela n d and the N ew W o rld should be understood as co u rtly codes im posed onto the nascent colonial vocabulary the E lizabethans used to describe the natives and them selves. N o b ility its e lf is a racial id e n tity , a genetically-transm itted set o f physical and m oral attributes, alleged to be as visible as one's parents. W hile tw en tieth -cen tu ry readers w o uld expect early exploration accounts to explo it the visible distinctions betw een natives o f Europe and natives o f the N ew W o rld to ju stify English presence in the area, such expectations are based on a late r discourse o f B ritish im perialism , one th at m ake claims o f European su p erio rity and native degradation quite e x p lid t.4 Sim ply put, colonial readings based on ou trig h t degradation do not adequately describe the earliest m om ents o f English expansion in the N e w W o rld . W hile the B ritish w o uld seem to have a ll the tools needed to d ep ict th e ir encounters in such ways: a confident concept o f race, the desire fo r land and resources, as w e ll as a group o f interested investors, th eir early accounts generally do not conform to these expectations. In fact, the earliest o f B ritish colonial efforts actually resist and red raw these racial and p o litic al lines in a ^Indeed, consider Rowse's 1955 discussion o f the Lost Roanoke Colony: "[T]here is a tra d itio n th at w h ite blood flow ed in the veins o f some of the tribes. N o doubt: the colonists m ust have been scalped and eaten," p . 219. To assume th at the English w ere k ille d by local tribes is reasonable; to assume th at such tribes practiced cannibalism is crude. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. N ew W o rld rom ance to claim that the lan d and natives are no t so much exotic as fa m ilia r and thus, easily w ith in the grasp o f English control. In his Rhetoric o f E m p ire. S pu rr explains this strategy: [T]he u ltim a te aim o f colonial discourse is not to establish a rad ic al o p positio n betw een co lo n izer and colonized. It seeks to d o m in ate by inclusion and dom estication rather th an by a co nfrontation w hich recognizes the independent id e n tity o f the O ther.5 English gentlem en-explorers fram e th e ir exploits in term s of a chivalric quest in w h ich noble knights save the n o b ility o f other lands. According to m any N e w W o rld accounts, the English are fa r less concerned w ith racial differen ce betw een the natives and them selves than they are w ith differences betw een them selves and the lo w ly Spanish. W ith in this setting, Elizabethan gentlem en colonize te rrito ry by em phasizing th e ir affin ity w ith the indigenous people o f the N ew W orld and defin ing n o b ility as a racial (or perhaps supraracial) id e n tity that transcends the labels o f English and native. Rom ance, C h iv a lry , an d the Tournam ent N e ith e r lite ra ry no r travel accounts o f the N ew W o rld end w ith the perm anent settlem ent o f the explored area nor w ith the establishm ent o f the boundaries necessary to create maps. As Douglas Cham bers suggests, Elizabethan rom ance depends "upon a lan d elsew here, unm arked and SDavid S p u rr, The Rhetoric o f Em pire: C o lo n ial Discourse in Toum alism . T ra v e l W ritin g , and Im p e ria l A d m in is tra tio n (Durham : D uke U P , 1993), p . 32. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. uncharted."6 This resistance to closure is indicative not only o f England's disappointing perform ance, b u t also o f romance itself, w hich is "characterized p rim a rily as a form w hich sim ultaneously quests fo r and postpones a particu lar end, objective, o r object."^ Thus, the choice o f genre allow s the English losers to see th eir colonial defeats as preparation fo r (o r divergences from ) th eir eventual vic to ry. Romance, w h ile allo w in g Elizabethans to view th eir defeat as tem porary, requires heroes w ho fo llo w the code o f chivalry, defined by Keen as "an ethos in w hich m a rtia l, aristocratic and C hristian elem ents w ere fused together."» W illiam C axton's 1484 translation of Ram on L u ll's Book of C h iv a lry and the 1485 publication o f M alo ry's M orte D 'A rth u r, tw o o f the first books p rin ted in England, offered ro le models to w ould-be knights. Tudor subjects w ere quite taken w ith the connection between gallan t heroes of romances and the knights under E lizab eth . Literatu re and public events inspired by chivalry became increasingly popular in spite of (o r perhaps due to) the increasingly acknow ledged distance betw een Elizabethan and m edieval England. The concept o f anachronism ^Douglas Cham bers, "The Geographical Part o f Know ledge: M apping and N am in g ," C h apter Tw o in The R einvention o f the W orld: English W ritin g 1650-1750 (N ew York: A rnold Fobe, 1996), p. 21. 7Patrida Parker, Inescapable Romance: Studies in the Poetics o f a M o de (Princeton U P , 1979), p . 4. «M aurice Keen, C h iv a lry (N e w Haven: Yale U P, 1984), p. 16. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8 itself was fa irly new , the product o f hum anist studies o f the classics and the religious reform ers' d rive to create a purer, older, non-papist church.^ Elizabethans relie d upon romance fo r m ore th an ju stificatio n of colonial failure; they form ed th e ir po litical id entities through public tournam ents, w hich in tu rn , w ere based on lite ra ry p recedent Elizabeth's reign was referred to as the "In d ia n Summer o f C h iv alry," the last gasp o f a set of m oribund social codes, w hen public tournam ents and kn igh tly 9See Fred Jacob Levy, Tudor H istorical Though t San M arino: H untington L ib rary, 1967. Levy traces the developm ent o f anachronism through the sixteenth century. As the sixteenth-century debate over the au th en ticity o f the A rth u rian legend continued in the face of England's questionable role in the N ew W o rld , Elizabethan explorers fused the uncertain past w ith the uncertain fu tu re and validated both in the process. This insistence on the application of older tales to present experience suggests an uneasiness about the shifting d e fin itio n o f history. See also R uth H u ff C line, "The Influence o f Romances on Tournam ents o f the M id d le Ages," Speculum 20 (1945). This article form s the basis o f m y discussion o f A rth u rian nostalgia during the M id d le Ages. The developing notion o f anachronism seems to necessitate the dem and to cling to it. C line w rites o f nostalgia for chivalry in the early th irteen th century: "[M ]o re and m ore as men realized that feudalism was dead, d id they attem pt to revive the glories that they believed attend it, through an appeal to A rth u ria n tradition. Consequently, it m ay w e ll be that the appeal to A rth u ria n chivalry had begun to be used fo r a specific purpose even as early as this," pp. 206- 207. Yet even religious reform ers could particip ate in these nostalgic celebrations. Yates w rites: "[T]he pageantry of d ü v a lry could also cover the b lu rred religious outlines of the 'E lizab eth an Settlem ent.' Since the rom ance tra d itio n was independent o f the religious changes, this w ould allo w those no t w hole-heartedly in favou r o f the latter to jo in in chivalrous occasions," p. 23. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. id entities served as key com ponents in dom estic p o lic y .lo The anniversary o f her accession to the throne, 17 N ovem ber 1558, became an annual c e Ie b ra tio n .il These progresses o f the queen provided the perfect arena fo r public displays o f lo yalty an d attem pts to curry favor w ith the monarch: [T ]h e A ccession D a y T ilts speak in the lan gu age o f pageantry o f a story w h ich belongs to the heart o f the age. . . . They re fle c te d th e pressure o f the tim e. F o r th e ch ivalro us fo rm u la s u ited the aristo cratic s tru c tu re o f E liza b e th a n s o cie ty, an d it w as the veh icle fo r the expression o f its hopes and fears, w h eth er p erso n al, p atrio tic, or r e lig io u s . 12 H ow ever, it is im p o rtan t to rem em ber that this distin ct form o f w arfare and court fla tte ry , despite its prevalence in lite ra ry and p o litic a l texts, was anachronistic for Elizabethans them selves. As Keen notes, by the late fifteen th century, the increased cost o f large, professionalized arm ies supported w ith new a rtille ry , such as guns cind canons, m ade p rivate troops im possible to affo rd.i3 A rth u r B. Ferguson explains that "c h iv a lry had become a m em ory, consciously cherished, highly evocative, v iv id enough to 10A rth u r B. Ferguson, The Indian Sum m er o f E nglish C hivalry: Studies in the D ecline and Transform ation of C h iv a lric Idealism (D uke U P, 1960). iiS ara R uth W atson, "The Q ueen's C ham pion," W estern Reserves B u lle tin NS X X X IV (Sept 1931): 65-89. W atson notes that the first celebration to be recorded was in 1570. i2Frands A . Yates, "E lizabethan C hivalry: The Rom ance of the Accession D ay T ilts," T ournai o f W arburg and C o u rtau ld In stitu te XX (1957): 4-25. i3Keen, pp. 240-241. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 10 inspire Spenser's epic and the exploits o f th at latter-d ay kn igh t Sir P hilip Sidney, b u t a m em ory nonetheless/'^^ Levy w rites: Thus the c h iva lric histo ry w h ich d u rin g the heyday o f c h iv a lry its e lf had n ever achieved any p o p u la rity in E ngland was b elatedly recom m ended to the subjects of H e n ry V m , w ho w o u ld surely have found it d iffic u lt to discover how to put the ideals in to practice.is So, even the m odel Elizabethans used to reconstruct th eir defeats as lite ra ry successes was its elf based on a construction rath er than historical precedent. To a certain extent, ch ivalry is alw ays nostalgic, always a celebration o f a n a c h r o n is m .^ 6 Johan H u izin g a w rites th at "the life of a knigh t is an im itation ."^ 7 The concept o f chivalry spurred a sense o f nostalgia even during the M id d le Ages, the period ch ivalry supposedly evokes. K nighthood, even in the M id d le Ages had become know n better fo r its peacetim e pageantry rath er i^Ferguson, p. ix. iSLevy, p. 52. i^Interest in the codes and regalia o f m edieval knighthood d id not die w ith the Elizabethans. For a discussion o f ch ivalric revivals fro m the late eighteenth century to W o rld W ar I, see M a rk G irou ard, The R eturn to Gamplnt: C hivalry and the English G entlem an (N ew H aven: Yale U P, 1981). In the preface, he w rites: "Once one starts looking fo r the influence o f ch ivalry in this period one finds it in alm ost em barrassing large quantities." iTJohan H u izin g a, The W aning o f the M id d le Ages: A Study o f the Form s o f l ife. Thought and A rt in France and the N etherlands in the D aw n o f the Renaissance (G arden C ity , N ew York: Doubleday A nchor Books, 1949, rp t, 1954), p . 71. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11 than its w artim e p r o w e s s .is In "The Influence o f Romance o f Tournam ents o f the M id d le Ages," R uth H u ff d in e argues that "tournam ents found th eir m odels in literature even du ring the firs t h a lf of the th irteen th century and continued to do so increasingly to the end of the M id d le A g e s ." 19 O ften , both the arm or and the weapons, highly decorative and too lig h t to do real harm , used du ring tournam ents w ould have been useless on the f ie ld .20 Likew ise, Q in e notes that chivalric events w ere often referred to as "round tables," not tournam ents, because they featured blunted "courtesy w eapons."2i In one tragic 1252 incident, a m an w ho failed to use a blunted w eapon k ille d his Io d in e details attem pts m ade by certain kings to recapture A rth u ria n trad itio n through m ate ria l "artifacts." She notes th a t w hen Edw ard I celebrated his conquest of W ales in 1284, he was "presented w ith the crown o f A rth u r, w h ich lu ckily had just been discovered," p. 204. As trad itio n usually has A rth u r come from W ales, the so-called coincidence was p o litically useful to signify the transfer o f pow er. Edw ard IH had a true "round table" b u ilt, using 52 oaks, d in e notes th at a French king soon had one b u ilt fo r him self. i9 d in e , p. 207. 20Watson w rites about a collection of Elizabethan suits o f arm or: "[TJhey were intended fo r parade purposes only, fo r they were highly enriched w ith engraving and g ild in g ," p. 69. z id in e , pp. 206-207. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 12 opponent, earning the w ra th o f one thirteenth-century h isto rian.22 C line explains, "[lim ita tio n had become com plete, and the real life and s p irit o f the tournam ent was dead w hen the tournam ent sought its fo rm [o f] com bat in litera tu re centuries old."23 Thus, Elizabethan knights com peting in pageants follow ed a "bloodless" courtesy m odel at least 300 years o ld , its e lf a nostalgic thirteenth-century tribu te to a tim e long before, know n m ain ly through lite ra ry romance.24 As Elizabethans cast themselves in literary rom ance to describe both th eir global and national policies, they paradoxically chose to provide themselves w ith a fu tu re through a self-conscious attem pt to re liv e the past. W hile actual m edieval knights m ay have had m ore op po rtunities to do battle on horseback and w ear arm or, they also had a distant connection to th eir A rth u ria n "inheritance." In fact, H u izing a argues that the very concept o f ch ivalry its elf is a type 22Cline, p. 206. Q in e also notes round tables held in 1235, 1249, and 1279, pp. 204-205. Keen w rites, "Insistence on the use o f bated weapons . . . became m ore and more common, . . . at some engagem ents tourneying arm our of padded leath er and non-m etal weapons w ere used," p . 86. 23d in e, p. 211. 24Frances A . Yates argues that the description o f Q ueen H elen of C orinth's annual jousts in P hilip Sidney's A rcad ia are actually reflections o f E lizabeth's ow n Accession D ay T ilts: "She kept her country at peace at a tim e when 'm any countries w ere fu lls o f w ars.' Y et she encouraged 'continual m artial exercises w ith o u t blood ,' fo r by this means she m ade h er courtiers 'perfect in th a t bloody a rt," p . 4. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 13 o f ^cad e used as a "cloak fo r a w hole w o rld o f violence and self-interest."25 W h ile a code o f chivalry du ring the Renaissance m ight provide a m eans to assert the w arrio r function o f a caste alread y lin ked w ith special in born grace and the highest degree o f m oral in te g rity , the m edieval version could serve as a means to sanitize the grim realities o f a soldier's duties. H u izin ga refers to the ch ivalry o f the M id d le Ages as a "tra d itio n a l fiction" in w hich: [W riters] succeeded in exp lain in g to them selves as w e ll as they could, the m otives and the course o f history, w hich thus was reduced to a spectacle o f the honor o f princes and the virtu e o f knights, to a noble gam e w ith ed ifying and heroic rules.26 Y et despite efforts to p u rify or ju s tify its m ore violent aspects, knighthood necessarily involves in cred ib le violence, w hether in rom antic epics o r hum an history. In his study o f knighted youths roam ing throughout tw elfth -cen tu ry France in search o f g lo ry, w ealth , and unm arried w om en w ith inheritances, Georges D uby concludes th at the lack of op po rtu n ity fo r younger brothers to settle and m arry encouraged the grow th o f a vio len t frin g e o f society that fueled the Crusades and a trend for tournam ents as w ell as general m a y h e m .2 7 Thus this "in strum en t o f aggression and tu m u lt in k n ig h tly society" was both inspired by ch ivalric litera tu re and the in sp iratio n 25Huizinga, p. 77. 26Huizinga, p. 69. 27Georges D uby, The C h ivalro u s Society, trans. C yn th ia Postan (Berkeley: UC Press, 1977, rpL 1980). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 14 fo r it.28 The Renaissance co u rtier in h erite d a m odel o f social o rd er in w hich the highest caste held both a n a tu ra l, visible superiority to the u n c iv ilize d populace and the sanction to com m it acts of violence against peoples in fo reign lands. The vio len t s tra in o f courtliness th at survives in the transition from m edieval kn igh t to ea rly m odem courtier creates the tension in the colonizing courtier fig u re. Rom ance A lthough such adventurous narratives o f w andering w ere increasingly criticized as im m oral stories w ith the pow er to corrupt young readers, Elizabethans seeking N ew W o rld treasures found a special resonance in the fo rm because it offered a m eans to negotiate im perial dream s w ith the dism al re ality . In the early M id d le Ages, the term "romance" was used to describe vernacular languages derived fro m L a tin and books composed o r translated in to these languages. M uch la te r, "rom ance" began to suggest certain qualities o f such books, nam ely them es o f love and adventure. In A n ato m y o f C riticism . N orthrop Frye provides a m ore specific description o f the form : The central fo rm o f quest rom ance is the d ragon -killing theme exem plified in th e stories of St George and Perseus. . . . A land ruled by a helpless o ld king is laid waste by a sea m onster, to w hom one yo u n g person a fte r an o th er is offered to be d evo u red , u n til the lo t falls on the kin g's daughter: at th at p o in t the hero arrives, kills the dragon. 28Duby, p. 115. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 15 m arries the daughter, and succeeds to the k in g d o m .2 9 D aring rescues that are rew arded w ith a m arriage and the throne suggest perhaps the ultim ate colonial fantasy. In 1785, C lara Reeve distinguished rom ance from the "picture o f real life and m anners" presented in the novel, "[T]he Romance, in lo fty and elevated language, describes w h at never happened nor is lik e ly to h a p p e n ." 3 0 H e r d e fin itio n w o uld have been an accurate description o f English colonization in the 1590s. Keen argues that the essential com ponents o f early m odem courtiership, a hierarchy based on one's supposed social function, stem largely from a m edieval system w hich served to codify m ore stric tly an existing p rivileg e o f aristocratic b irth , nam ely ch ivalry: The ch ivalric concept o f n o b ility lost none o f its force, and the notions o f its essential constituents— lo y a lty , generosity and courage— were not m uch altered . . . [C Jhivalry d id not fade o r decline w ith the com ing o f th e Renaissance. It m ight parade in a new dress, . . . b u t w h at this denoted was a change o f the ch ivalric c o u rtie r's w ardrobe rath er than a change o f heart.3i U n d er the Tudors, this codified system o f m anners became an essential means o f defin ing oneself as aristocratic and English. N o t surprisingly, it served m onarchs w ell. The channeling o f m a rtia l energy in to carefully 29Northrop Frye, A natom y o f C riticism (N e w York: Atheneum , 1968), p. 189. 30quoted in A nn Dobyns, The Voices o f Romance: Studies in D ialogue and Character (N ew ark: U o f D elaw are Press, 1989), p. 17. 3iK een, p. 249. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 16 plaim ed tournam ents and jousts allo w ed fo r a centralized m onarchy in spite o f tlie form idable threats o f trade route m onopolies and religious schism. Despite the po pu larity o f the form , some Elizabethans openly c ritic ize d such reverence fo r the distant past. M any saw rom ance as a g lo rificatio n o f vio len t and im m oral behavior. In his 1570 Schoolm aster, an advice m anual on educating children, Roger Ascham criticizes the form : As one fo r exam ple, M o rte A rth u r: the w hole pleasure o f w hich book stan d eth in tw o special p o in ts, in open m anslaughter and bo ld baw dy. In w h ich book those be counted the no blest k n ig h ts th at do k ill m ost m en w ith o u t any q u a rre l, and com m it foulest ad u lteries by subtlest shifts, as S ir Lancelo t, w ith the w ife o f K in g A rth u r his m aster. . . . This is good stu ff fo r w ise m en to laugh at, or honest m en to take pleasure at; yet 1 know w hen G od's B ible w as banished the co u rt an d M o rte A rth u r received in to the prince's chamber. W hat toys the d a ily reading o f such a book m ay w o rk in the w ill o f a young gentlem an, o r a young m aid, th at liv e th w e a lth ily and id ly, wise m en can judge and honest m en do p ity .32 Indeed, such adventurous narratives of w andering w ere increasingly criticized as im m oral stories w ith the pow er to corrupt young readers. In his A natom ie o f A bsurditie. Thom as Nashe writes: W hat els I p ray yo u d u e these bable bookem ungers endeavor but to repane the tuinous w als o f Venus C ou rt, to restore to the w o rld e th at forgotten Legendary license o f lyin g , to im itate a fresh the fantasticall dream es o f those exiled Abbie-lubbers, from w ho id le pens proceeded those w om e out im pressions o f the feyned no w here acts o f 32quoted in C arol V . Kaske, 'T fo w Spenser R eally Used Stephen Hawes in the Legend o f H oliness," in U nfolded Tales: Essays on Renaissance Rom ance, ed. George M . Logan and G ordon Teskey (Ithaca: C ornell U P, 1989), p . 119. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 17 A rth u r o f the roun de table, A rth u r o f little B ritta in e , S ir Tristram , H ew o n o f B ordeaux, the S quire o f lo w degree, the foure sons o f A m m on, w ith in fin ite o th e r s .3 3 D espite such caustic criticism , the fo rm prevailed: Romance s tirre d up sexual anxieties . . . it w as constantly rid ic u le d fo r its extravagance, its neglect o f u n itie s , the in c re d ib ility o f its characters and th e ir actions, its lack o f atten tion to everyth ing th a t critics of th at tim e m eant by 'n a tu re .' Y et it is rom ance that takes o v er T h e Faerie O ueene. the last p erio d o f Shakespeare, and th e biggest w ork o f S id n e y .34 H ow ever, despite its sexual natu re, rom ance does allo w fo r relig ious goals, as ch ivalry itself is based upon p iety and service to G od. D u rin g the Crusades, ch ivalry had been defined as the m a rtia l com ponent o f relig io u s fa ith . In the Book o f the order o f chivalry. L u ll describes chivalry as the an tid ote to o rig in al sin, w hich Keen explains: [A ]fte r the fa ll o f m an, w ar and 'm isprision' began to enter the w o rld and d istu rb it, ch ivalry was in stitu te d to restrain and defend the people. . . . [The knight's firs t d u ty ] is to defend the fa ith o f C h rist against unbelievers, w h ich w ill w in him honour b o th in this w o rld and th e next: here speaks the crusader's s o n .3 5 R eligion is o ften listed as the ultim ate ju stificatio n fo r co lonizatio n. 33quoted in G illia n Beer, The Romance. The C ritic a l Id io m Series, gen. ed. John D . Jump (London: M ethuen and Co L td ., 1970), p. 33. 34N orthrop Frye, Forew ord to U nfolded Tales: Essays on Renaissance Rom ance, ed. G eorge M . Logan and G o rd on Teskey (Ithaca: C ornell U P , 1989), p . ix. 35Keen, p. 9. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 18 H a k lu y t was both a m inister and a vocal proponent o f E lizabethan e x p a n s io n .3 6 In his serm on to the V irg in ia Com pany, delivered n o t long after an In d ian massacre o f E nglish settlers, Donne asks m em bers o f the com pany to measure success in term s o f sp iritual rather than m ate ria l r e w a r d s .3 7 W hen John H aw kins, kinsm an o f Francis D rake, m ade the firs t English attem pt to enter the slave trad e, he sailed aboard a ship nam ed the Tesus o f Lubeck.3 8 Elizabethans could never tru ly be losers w hen th ey had 36See The FTiîrabethan's Am erica: A C ollection o f E a rly Reports by Englishm en on the N e w W o rld , ed. Louis B. W rig h t (C am bridge: H arvard UP, 1965). H a k lu y t's 1585 "Reasons fo r C olo nization " begins w ith tw o religious objectives: "(1) The glory of God by p lan tin g of religion among these in fid e ls, and (2) The increase o f the force o f the Christians," pp. 26-27. 37See "A Serm on Preached to the H onourable C om pany o f the V irg in ian P lantation 13 N ovem ber 1622. By John Donne D eane o f St Pauls, London" in The Serm ons o f Tohn Dorm e (V o l IV ), ed. George R. Potter and Evelyn Sim pson (Berkeley: U n iversity o f C a lifo rn ia Press, 1959). 38W right, p. 36. The Spanish too had depended upon such ratio nalizatio n to ju stify th e ir presence. H em an Cortes assures the K ing o f Spain th at conversion to the True Faith o f C atholicism w ill cure the natives o f th eir u n c iv ilize d practices. In fact, C ortes argues that even the indigenous trib es them selves realize th at the Spanish hold the truth, as he explains an incident in w hich he trie d to replace local idols w ith saints. A t firs t the people w ere quite upset, u n til Cortes provided them w ith the tru e relig io n , "A ll o f them , especially M ontezum a, replied th a t. . . they w ere not natives o f this la n d , and that as it was m any years since th eir forefathers had come here, they w e ll knew that they m igh t have erred som ewhat in w h at they believe, fo r they had le ft th e ir n ative lan d so long ago; and as I had o n ly recently arrived from there, I w o u ld better know the things they should believe, and should exp lain to them and m ake them understand, for they w o uld do as I said was best." Letters fi-om M exico. trans. A . R. Pagden (N ew Y o rk: Grossman Publishers, 1971), pp . 106-07. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 19 G od, as w ell as King A rth u r, on th e ir side. The Texts I focus on the w ritings o f fo u r m en w ith considerable personal and professional investm ent in both E ngland's lite ra ry circles and its colonizing program : Sir P hilip Sidney, Sir W a lte r Ralegh, Edm und Spenser, and John D onne. These fo u r m en a ll sought th e ir fortunes as both courtly w riters and participants in the program o f English colonization. Sidney, who w rote A strop hil and S tella. A n A pology fo r Poetry, and tw o versions o f A rcad ia, had considerable fam ily and personal connections to colonization. H is fath er H en ry Sidney served tw o term s as Lo rd D eputy o f Irelan d . Sidney him self invested in English voyages and purchased the righ t to three m illio n acres n o t-yet discovered in A m erica. H is school chum Fulke G reville w ro te a biography that includes a chapter d e ta ilin g Sidney's plans fo r a N ew W o rld colony. Ralegh led tw o expeditions to G uiana, prom oted the w o rk o f H a rrio t and W hite in the V irg in ia te rrito ry , published the "D iscovery," and m aintained a considerable collection o f geographic m aterials in the T o w er o f London. Yet, true to his Renaissance m an im age, he also composed poetry including C ynthia. Scholars typically define Spenser as a poet; his extensive artistic production includes the A m o re tti. the Shepherd's C alendar, and The Faerie Q ueene. Such efforts w on him an annual pension o f £ 50 from Q ueen E lizabeth and Sidney's assistance in lan ding a position as secretary to A rth u r Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 20 Lo rd Grey de W ilton.39 Spending m ost o f his career in Ire la n d , Spenser advocated ou trig h t conquest in A V ie w of the Present State o f Ire la n d . H e supervised an English colony o f six households established o n lan d seized from the rebellious E arl o f Desm ond. Donne w rote poetry fille d w ith references to m aps, navigation equipm ent, and colonization. H e unsuccessfully sought the position o f secretary o f the V irg in ia C om pany. Despite th e ir involvem ent in both co urtly poetry and co lon ial effo rts, these w riters m ay have gravitated to romance fo r other reasons. A ll fo ur could have considered them selves failures. W hile his d eath in the N etherlands was legendary, Sidney was never able to prove him self as a diplom at or w arrio r. Interference from the queen prevented him from ever seeing the N ew W orld. H e d ied in debt. In spite o f his efforts, Ralegh never established a perm anent English settlem ent; he spent m ost o f his last years in prison. A fte r he fa ile d to retu rn w ith the gold he had prom ised from the G uiana exped ition d u rin g w hich his son W at died, Redegh was beheaded, allegedly because he w as a Spanish spy. H is relations w ith King James had alw ays been strained. D espite his pension, Spenser was isolated from E lizabeth's court because he liv e d in Irela n d ; he never became the court poet he w anted to be. Some reports claim he died penniless in the streets o f London, days after his hom e in Ire la n d was burned 39Critics disagree w hether the am ount was an in su lt o r a com plim ent from her. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 21 by rebels. Donne was never able to translate his poetic talents in to the court position he desired. Yet the careers o f a ll fo u r bespeak the synthesis o f courtly lite ra tu re and colonization efforts th at characterize this perio d . These m en invested m uch o f th e ir professional e ffo rt in m apping the varieties o f the colonizing co u rtier dynam ic: Sidney focuses on class; R alegh, race; Spenser, culture; and Dorm e, gender. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 22 Chapter 2 "To use men as men are": Sidney^s Romantic Colony in Arcadia In his 'T)efence o f Poesy," S ir P hilip Sidney claim s th at w hile "[nature's] w o rld is brazen, th e poets only deliver a golden [o n e)."i In nature's w o rld , Sidney is unable to fu lfill his dreams as both colonizer and as diplom atic courtier; how ever, his A rcadia offers a substitute fo r his u n fu lfille d am bitions, a series o f "speaking pictures" th at explore relations betw een poetry, class, and colonialism . W hen Sidney composes this pastoral rom ance in the 1580s, England has no Arm ada victo ry, no colonies and possibly a "frog" as king.2 D uring the period th at Sidney and m em bers o f his fam ily pursue great colonial am bitions, England u ltim a te ly fails to assert and m aintain co ntrol over its w ould-be territories. So perhaps it is not surprising th at Sidney argues for the I "The Defence o f Poesy" in Sir P hilip Sidney: Selected Prose and Poetry, ed. Robert K im brough (M adison: U o f W isconsin P, 1983), p. 108. 2"Frog" was E lizab eth 's pet name fo r her French suitor, the Duke of Alencon. Sidney fe ll o u t o f favor at court fo r his p u blic opposition to the prospect o f a non-E nglish king on the throne. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 23 p rio rity o f poetic tru th o ver histo rical truth, w hich he claim s often illustrates vice rew arded and v irtu e punished. W hile "poetry ever sets virtu e so out in her best colors, [H ]isto ry, being captived to the tru th o f a foolish w orld, is m any tim es a terro r from w ell-d o in g , and an encouragem ent to unbridled w ic k e d n e s s ."^ A lthough Sidney helped to finance m any N ew W orld adventures, the colony he established exists only in his rom ance, Arcadia. As poetry, A rcadia offers the id eal: a w o rld in w hich noble bom knight-errants have the opportunity to quest fo r fam e, meet b eau tifu l w om en, and save countries w h ile receiving g ratefu l acclaim from natives. The social w o rld o f this rom ance strongly echoes the description o f the plan fo r an A m erican colony attrib uted to Sidney in Fulke G reville's biography of the poet, T.ife o f Sidney.4 Reading in term s o f the colonial plan detailed by G reville, I focus on the in itia l chapters o f the text, w hich describe class hierarchy in A rcadia. 1 argue th at Sidney's com m itm ent to a static definition o f class id e n tity as race is a defensive m ove agzdnst both the contem porary Elizabethan class flu x th at threatened his ow n status and the recognition th at em p ire-b u ild in g entails social m o b ility. I also exam ine the ways in w hich class id e n tity is constructed in A rcadia as a visible and 3 "Defence," p . 121. 4pulke G re v ille , "A D edication to Sir P h ilip Sidney" in The Prose W orks o f Fulke G re v ille . Lord Brooke, ed. John Gouws (O xford: Q aredon Press, 1986). Gouws argues fo r "A D edication" as the preferred title o f G reville's w ork; I, however, re fe r to it using the trad itio n al title o f the w o rk, T.ife o f Sidney Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 24 therefore n atu ral d istin ctio n . In A rcadia. Sidney offers a m odel o f colonization th at conform s to conventions o f class id e n tity as racially determ ined; the story begins w ith m any references to social rank. The shepherds w ho rescue the shipw recked M usidorus and carry his chest describe themselves as m en "w hose baseness is such as the very know ledge is darkness."5 They te ll M usidorus o f a c iv il w ar betw een the gentlem en and the peasants (called H elots) th a t has ruin ed the country o f Laconia. The w arrin g H elots refuse to accept ransom money to release certain noble prisoners because of the "hate those peasants conceived against a ll gentlem en."^ Y et even the peasants recognize th e ir ow n in ab ility to function in an organized fashion in Sidney's new w o rld . D espite their hatred fo r n o b ility , they request leadership from Dem agoras, a gentlem an recently banished from a neighboring kingdom : "[T]hey, g lad to have a m an o f such au th o rity am ong them , m ade him th eir general, and un der him have com m itted divers the m ost outrageous villanies that a base m u ltitu d e fu ll o f desperate revenge can im agine."^ Thus, members o f the lo w e r class cannot 5Sir P liiH p Sidney, The Countess o f Pem broke's A rcad ia, ed. M aurice Evans (N ew Y ork: Penguin, 1977, rpL 1987), p . 70. 6 A rcad ia, p. 86. 7A rcadia, p. 90. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 25 even be credited w ith responsibility fo r th eir o w n revenge * Even so, the text clearly demonstrates the chaos created by those w ho fa il to accept th e ir social ra n k . Just as the Helots require a noble leader to guide th eir "outrageous villan ies," they also depend upon a noble leader to bring the w a r to an end. Pyrocles, Sidney's noble-bom hero, displays the charm o f the colonizing co u rtier to w in the H elots over. A lth ou g h the peasants firs t im prison Pyrocles, they later request th at he lead their troops. H e even tually ends the w ar by declaring the term s o f peace the Helots w ill fo llo w . Pyrocles fu rth er em bodies the colonizing cou rtier w hen he leaves the H elo ts, w ho now seem to w orship him: So, then, after a few days o f setting them in perfect order, he took his leave o f them , whose eyes bade him fa re w e ll w ith tears, and m ouths w ith kissing the places w here he stepped, and after, m aking tem ples unto him as to a dem i god, thinking it beyond the degree o f hum anity to have a w it so fa r over-going his age, and such d re a d fu l te rro r proceed from so excellent b e a u ty .9 W ith such a tearful farew ell, Sidney effaces form er class resentm ent. The peasants who previously hated gentlem en enough to fig h t a c iv il w ar have *The Laconian H elots resem ble N a tiv e Am ericans oppressed by Spanish invaders: "[The Laconians] having been o f o ld freem en and possessioners, the Lacedaem onians had conquered them and la id not only tribute, but bondage upon them ." A rcadia, p. 94. 9Arcadia, p. 103. A n o ther tale o f o v erly em otional natives clam oring fo r the colonizer's affections is present in m any versions o f the Columbus story. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 26 been subdued by the innate n o b ility o f Pyrocles, a young prince in disguise. Even the low ly masses recognize his superiority to them . This depiction allow s Pyrocles to be both fierce and beloved a t the same tim e. The native H elots w ant Pyrocles to lead them . Thus, colonization is ju stified as a form of assistance to the natives. A rg uin g th at romance o ften serves as a tool for elite sym pathies, N orthrop Frye w rites: 'Tn every age the ru lin g social or in tellectual class tends to project its ideals in some form o f rom ance, where the virtuous heroes and b e a u tifu l heroines represent the ideals and the villain s the threats to th eir ascendancy."lo The notion o f superior noble blood is affirm ed and even em braced by the peasants who are subjected by it. In The R hetoric o f E m pire. D avid Spurr explains that the pow er s h ift relies upon a com m on trope in colonial discourse: It [c o lo n ia l d is c o u rs e ] effaces its o w n m a rk o f approp riation by transform ing it in to the response to a pu tative appeal on the p a rt o f the colonized lan d and people. . . . C o lo n ial discourse thus transfers the locus o f desire onto the co lo n ized object its e lf. It appro p riates te rrito ry , w h ile it also appropriates the means by w h ich such acts o f ap prop riation are to be understood.^ i Because the poem opens in the m idst of the Laconian c iv il w ar, Pyrocles's lO Northrop Frye, A natom y o f C riticism : Four Essays (N ew York: Atheneum , 1968), p. 186. iiQ a v id Spurr, The Rhetoric o f Em pire: C olonial Discourse in Toumalism . T rav el W ritin g , and Im p erial A d m in istratio n (Durham ; Duke U P, 1993), p. 28. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 27 conquest o f the H elots can be portrayed as a rescue e ffo rt, as he brings peace and order to the peasants. This depiction o f subjugation echoes a fundam ental principle o f colonial discourse: "a colonized people is m orally im proved and edified b y virtu e o f its particip atio n in th e colonial s y s te m ." t2 Sidney, like Pyrocles, could rise to any challenge, according to G reville: In d e e d he was a true m odel of w orth: a m an fit fo r conquest, plantation, reform ation or w hat action soever is greatest, and hardest am ong m e n ." i3 G reville argues that this "fitness" fo r conquest and p lan tatio n is evidenced by Sidney's colonial plan. Sidney wishes to "assail him [the kin g o f Spain] by incursion o r invasion (as the occasion fe ll out) in some p art o f that rich and desert W est Indian m ain ."i4 A ccording to G reville, Sidney's projected colony w ould o ffer participants, each in his or her place, b o th w ealth and honor: W h erein , to in c ite those th a t ta rrie d a t hom e to adventure, he propounded the hope o f a sure, and a rich return: to m a rtia l m en he opened the w id e door o f sea and land; fo r fam e and conquest; to the nobly am bitious the fa ir stage o f A m erica; to w in h o n o u r in ; to the religious divines, besides a new apostolicall calling o f the last heathen to the C hristian fa ith , a large fie ld of reducing poor C hristians, m isled by the id o la try o f Rome to their m o th e r p rim itiv e C h u rc h ; to th e in g e n io u s ly in d u s trio u s , v a rie ty o f n a tu ra l richesses fo r new m ysteries, and m anu factures to w o rk upon; to the m erchant, w ith a sim ple people, a fe rtile and unexhausted earth; to the fo rtu n e-b o u n d , lib e rty ; to the curious, a i^Spurr, p. 33. t3G reville, p . 21. i^G reville, p. 70. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 28 fru itfu l w om b o f in n o v atio n — generally the w o rd 'g o ld ' was an a ttra c tiv e ad am ant, to m ake m en ven tu re th a t w hich they have in hope to grow rich by th at w hich they have not. is Instead o f describing the N ew W orld as a place abundant in supplies and territo ry, G reville places greater emphasis on the types o f people (n o t the people them selves) w ho m ig h t in h ab it the new colony. Such carefu l categorization o f p o ten tial colonists and th eir proper position echoes Sidney's repeated insistence on ran k in his poem . Pirates, considered a sig nifican t th reat to Sidney's N ew W o rld plans, are also the firs t villain s seen in A rcad ia. Before local shepherds can save Pyrocles from a sinking ship, they see a "w e ll- know n pirate w ho hunted n o t only fo r goods but for bodies o f m en e ith e r to be his galley slaves or to sell at the best m arket." 1 6 Slave traders w ere m ore than just fictional characters fo r Sidney. In the late 1560s, about 20 years before Sidney is believed to have begun A rcadia, fe llo w Englishm en John H aw kins attem pted to break the Spanish m onopoly on the slave m arket. In A rcadia, the real crim e is not so m uch the practice o f slavery, b u t the pirate's practice o f indiscrim inate slavery. H e has no regard fo r the alleg edly natural caste system in to w h ich the princes have been bom . Speaking to him self as he sees the pirates approach, Pyrocles asserts th at suicide w o u ld be preferable to the disgrace o f servitude; isG reviUe, p. 70. 1 6 A rcadia, p. 67. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 29 'A la s / said he to him self, 'd ear Pyrocles, shall th a t body o f thine be enchained? S hall those victorious hands o f thine be com m anded to base offices? S hall v irtu e becom e a slave to those th a t be slaves to viciousness? A las, b ette r had it been th o u hast ended nobly thy noble days. W hat death is so e v il as u n w o rth y s e rv itu d e ? '1 7 A ccording to G reville, Sidney plans to avoid such class co n flict by keeping out lo w ly people; he e x p lic itly excludes pirates from the N ew W o rld project. The colony is intended to be a place fo r gentlem en, not a refuge fo r crim inals; N ow w hen these beginnings were by his ow n c re d it and industry thus w e ll settled, then, to give an excellent fo rm to a real w o rk, he co ntrived this new -intended p la n ta tio n , not lik e an asylum fo r fugitives— a bellum p ira tic u m fo r b a n d itti, o r an y such base ramass o f people— b u t as an em porium fo r the confluence of a ll nations th a t lo ve o r profess any kin d e o f v irtu e or commerce.! 8 Thus, the N ew W o rld becomes a place to escape "base ramass of people," a colony fo r aristocrats.! 9 S idn ey's Plans or G re v ille 's ? G reville, author o f the poem s collected in Caelica. is b etter know n as Sidney's lifelong frien d and the m an to whom Sidney entrusted his revision o f A rcadia. It is G reville w ho eulogizes Sidney's death in the N etherlands by pro vid in g us w ith the fam ous lin e Sidney allegedly spoke as he handed a ! 7 A rcadia, p. 67. !*G rev ille , p . 70. !9"[H ]e had (o u t o f th at natural tribu te, w hich a ll free spirits acknowledge to su perior w o rth ) won th irty gentlem en o f great blood, and state here in E ngland every man to sell one hu nd red pounds' land," G reville, p. 70. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 30 poor th irsty soldier his ow n w ater b o ttle, "T hy necessity is yet greater than m in e . "20 O f course, G reville's L ife o f Sidney, dated around 1612 (m ore than 25 years after Sidney's death) and not published u n til 40 years later in 1652, should not be read as a com pletely accurate description o f Sidney's colonial aspirations. G reville m ight sim ply be p rojecting his ow n colonial am bitions as the desires of his fam ous frien d ; how ever, Sidney was an active p a rticip an t in m any efforts at English expansion. A s K im H a ll notes, "A lthough G re v ille was m ost certainly using The l ife fo r his o w n p o litical purposes in a Jacobean court, his rendition o f Sidney's im p eria l aspirations is not out o f place w ith w hat is know about Sidney's p o litic al career."21 In fact, the entire Sidney fa m ily showed an interest in colonial expansion. 20VVhile G reville w rites elegiacally o f Sidney's heroic death a fte r the battle o f Zutphen, G reville's o w n death, unfortunately, was n o t so glorious. G reville's servant R alph H ay w ard , upset to leam th at he was excluded from his m aster's w ill, stabbed G reville in the back as he "w as h a lf undressed and 'com ing from sto o l.' Katherine Duncan-Tones. S ir P h ilip Sidney: C o u rtier Poet (N e w H aven: Yale U P, 1991), p. 240. Then H ayw ard "to consumm ate the T rag ed y, w ent into another room e, and having lock't the dore, pierced his ow n bow ells w ith a sw o rd ,'" quoted in N o w ell Sm ith, "In tro d u ctio n ," in Sir Fulke G reville's L ife o f S ir P h ilip Sidnpy (London: C larendon Press, 1907), p. x i. K atherine Duncan-Jones w rites: "Before he kn ew th at H ayw ard was dead, G reville asked th at he should n o t be prosecuted. This could reflect m agnanim ity, but m ay m ore probably indicate that there w ere aspects o f his relationship w ith H ayw ard w h ich he d id not w ish to have exposed in court," p. 240. 2iK im HaU, Things o f Darkness: Economies o f Race and G ender in E arly M odem England (Ithaca: C o rn e ll U P, 1995), p. 74. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 31 C olonial Interests: A Sidney Fam ily Tradition Sidney's experiences w ith co lon izatio n began w hen he was quite young. H is father H en ry Sidney served as lo rd president o f the m arches o f W ales and first became Lord D eputy o f Ire la n d in 1565, w hen P h ilip was 11.22 The previous lack o f consistent Iris h policies (and consistent fu n d in g ) m ade the position quite d iffic u lt.2 3 Requesting a greater com m itm ent fro m the queen w hen he returned to the post in 1575, H en ry "w ished it to be understood that he was s till personally in favo r o f 'forcible subjection' on the understanding that it was 'no subject's en terp rise' but one w hich dem anded a 22Katherine Duncan Jones w rites, "Though he was by no means gentle in his measures, H en ry Sidney's preference fo r legal and diplom atic resolution o f Iris h resistance, and his w illingness, sometimes, to hear com plaints an d deal w ith them w ith in a legal fram ew ork, m ust have co ntributed to his po pu larity and p a rtia l success, relative at least to some other governors o f the period. Economic rath er than m ilita ry problem s w ere to be his undoing: the local governm ents he set up w ere extrem ely expensive to sustain," p. 109. 23In the introduction to his collection o f Sidney fa m ily documents, A rth u r C ollins w rites o f H en ry in glow ing term s, " [0 ]u r H istorians agree, that he firs t c iv ilize d the Irish , by bringing them under Obedience to the Laws o f E ngland. The Progress he m ade through the w hole Kingdom . . . is very judiciously and exactly related in his letters to Queen E lizabeth an d the Lords o f the C ouncil, w hich shew the lam entable and d iso rd erly State, that the N atives then labored under from th eir Tenures, barbarous Customs, w a n t o f Com merce, &c. as w ell as the D iffic u ltie s surm ounted in m aking any Sort of Reform ation am ongst them . They are the only Accounts o f the A ffairs of Ireland during th at T im e, w hidh can be depended upon." A rth u r C ollins, Letters and m em orials o f the state . . . w ritte n and collected by S ir H en ry Sydney . . . the famous S ir P hilip Sydney . . . The w hole containing the continent state o f Irelan d . (London: Thom as Osborne, 1746). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 32 'p rince's purse and p o w e r /" 2 4 H e n ry and P h ilip la te r helped frie n d E dm und Spenser secure a secretarial post w ith another Lord D ep u ty o f Ire la n d , A rth u r Lo rd G rey de W ilto n . P h ilip w ro te an elaborate defense o f his fa th e r's Iris h po licy in 1577; w hen Palesm en (A n g lo -Iris h gentry liv in g near D u b lin ) balked at losing th eir exem ption fro m land taxes know n as cess, P h ilip composed "A Discourse on Iris h A ffa irs ," o f w hich only a fragm ent exis ts .2 5 Sidney's fa th e r-in -la w Frances W alshingham w as a m em ber o f the V irg in ia C o m p a n y .26 H is sister M ary H e rb e rt invested in the Frobisher and Fenton v o y a g e s .2 7 Richard H a k lu y t, a vocal proponent o f E nglish expansion, dedicated his 1582 "D ivers Voyages touching the D iscoverie o f A m erica, and 2 4 D ictio n ary o f N a tio n a l Biography: From the E arliest Tim es to 1900 vol. X V m , ed. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee (London: O xfo rd U P, 1950), p. 214. 2sphilip criticized the landed gentry as those w ho reap the benefits o f liv in g in Ire la n d , b u t never w an t to share the fin a n c ia l burden o f runn ing the te rrito ry 's adm inistration: "For th is touchet[h] the privileges fo r soothe and p rivileged persons be a ll the riche m en o f the pale, the burdne only lyin g e uppon the poore, w ho m ay grone fo r theyr cry cannot be hearde." "A Discourse on Iris h A ffa irs ," in T h e C om plete W orks o f S ir P h ilip Sidney V o l H I, ed. A lb e rt F e u ille ra t (London: C am bridge U P, 1 9 2 3 ), p. 46. 26HaU, p. 73. 27Sir P h ilip Sidney (1554-1586) E ntry, in The D ic tio n a ry o f N atio n al B iography notes th a t P h ilip held a 25 £ share and 50 £ share in M a rtin Frobisher's exped itio n in search o f the N o rth -W e st Passage in 1575, p. 226. C atherine Duncan-Jones notes th a t M a rtin Frobisher's previous voyage had retu rn ed from N o rth ern Labrado r w ith black p y rite, out o f w h ich an Ita lia n goldsm ith had alleged ly extracted, p p . 116-117. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 33 the Islands adjacent unto the sam e, m ade firs t o f a ll by o u r Englishm en, and afterw ards by the Frenchm en and B ritons" to Sidney: "To the rig h t w orshipful and m ost virtuous gentlem an. M aster P h ilip Sidney E s q u ire ." 2 8 Yet, Sidney's connections to A m erica w ere more than casual. K atherine Duncan-Jones notes th at Sidney had a strong desire to go to the N ew W orld w ith Frobisher and "in M arch 1578 he was contem plating an 'I n d ia n p roject.'" 29 in a le tte r to H u b e r t L a n g u e t, h e w r ite s th at: Frobisher's gold has been m elted and w ill not produce the greater w ealth that a t firs t it had prom ised. H ow ever, the islands at 62 (degrees) N are no t to be despised, but (as you know ) th ey keep th is a g re a t secret, to p re v e n t an op p o rtu nity being lost. Besides, they hope to be able to cross the sbraits at this same la titu d e: such nonsense is the great w o rld described by the cosmographers. B ut if there is open w ater in such a clim ate, you can see th at this w ill be of the greatest im portance.30 In 1583 he "purchased the rig h t to settle, cu ltivate and trade in three m illio n acres not yet discovered by G ilb ert, and in the fo llow ing m onth he covenanted [30,000 acres of] these vast, b u t as yet purely nom inal estates to Sir 28quoted in "England's Tim e Approaches fo r A p p ro p riatin g Part o f the N ew W o rld " in The E lizabethans' Am erica: A C ollectio n o f Early Reports by Englishm en on the N e w W orld, ed. Lew is B. W rig h t (Cam bridge: H arvard U P , 1965), p. 21. 29Duncan-Jones, p. 142. 30"Letter to H u b ert Languet dated 1 M arch 1578" in S ir P h ilip Sidney: C ritica l E d itio n o f the M a jo r W orks, ed. K atherine D uncan- Jones (O xford: O xford U P , 1989), p. 283. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 34 George Peckham.3i H e sat on a com m ittee of the House o f Com m ons w hich defined the boundaries o f the projected colony o f V irg in ia . In 1585, Sidney trie d to sail w ith S ir Francis D rake w ith o u t securing the queen's perm ission. D rake, perhaps leery o f the queen's disapproval, inform ed the court; Sidney was summoned to appear and thus, unable to leave. G re v ille 's version describes the strategy as a partnership between D rake and Sidney; he w rites th at Sidney had to abandon the project to serve in the Low C ountries. G reville notes th at D rake's voyage d id not fu lfill Sidney's u ltim ate plan: [T ]h a t h e ro ic a l d e s ig n o f in v a d in g and possessing A m erica— how exactly soever projected and digested in every m inute by S ir P h ilip — d id yet prove im possible to be w ell acted by any o th er m an's s p irit than his o w n , how s u ffic ie n t soever h is associate w ere in a ll p a rts o f navigation, w herby the success of this journey fe ll o u t to be rather fo rtun ate in w ea lth than h o n o u r.3 2 Spain: A n Enemy w ith D isregard fo r N o b ility The Spanish, w ith th eir incredib le success in the N ew W o rld , w ere the favorite target and ju stificatio n fo r w ould-be English colonists.33 According to G reville, Spanish tyrarm y over trade routes and A m erican natives was Sidney's m otivation fo r his colony: [H ]e foresaw how th is over-racked u n ity o f the Spanish 3iDim can-Jones, p. 230. 32G reville, pp. 45-46. 331nterestingly enough, P h ilip was nam ed a fte r his godfather, w ho became K ing P h ilip o f Spain. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 35 g o vern m en t (in te n d in g to w o rk a change in th e free course o f nature) had in terdicted a ll m anu facture, traffick or vent b y sea or lan d betw een the natives o f A m erica and a ll nations else, S pain excepted; and w ith a l, to m ake the barrenness o f S pain m ore fe rtile , h o w he had im proved th at id le C astilian , by em ploym ents in activeness, w ealth and a u th o rity o ver Üiose vanquished creatures, suffering the poor n ative Am ericans to be suppressed w ith heavy im p o sitio n s, disco uragin g id leness, bondage o f law s, sh earin g o f the hum ble sheep to c lo th e th e p ro u d , d evo u rin g w olves; fin a lly , u n d er these, and suchlike quintessences o f tyranny striving (as I said) even besides nature to m ake b a rren Spain the m on arch y, and that everyw ay m ore fe rtile Am erica to be the province. 34 G reville then credits Sidney w ith the foresight to p red ict the extent o f Spanish cruelty in the new w o rld; S ir P h ilip — o u r u n b e lieve d C assan dra— ob served this lim itless am b itio n o f the S paniard to have chosen that utterm o st citad e l o f bondage— I m ean the In q u is itio n of Spain— fo r her in strum ent; n o t, as in fo rm e r m asks, to prune or govern, b u t, in a confidence risin g ou t o f the old age of su p erstitio u s phantasm s, u tte rly to ro o t o u t a ll seeds o f hum an freedom , and (as S ir P h ilip conceived) w ith fa ta l dissolution to itself: In respect th at these types of extrem ity w o u ld soon publish to the w o rld , w h at little difference tyrants strive to leave betw een the creation, use an d h o n o u r o f m en an d b e a sts , v a lu in g th em in d iffe re n tly b u t as counters to sum u p the d iverse, nay contrary uses.35 In this passage, Spain is no longer to be hated sim ply fo r abusing indigenous tribes, but fo r ignoring class difference. In A rcad ia, the same m istake is m ade 34GreviUe, p. 68. 35G reville, p. 68. H is tribute to S idney's "foresight" echoes the relationship betw een poet and prophet S idney describes in his "Defence." "[A ]m ong the Romans a poet w as called Vates, w hich is as m uch as a d iv in e r, foreseer, or prophet." "D efence," p. 106. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 36 by K ing Basilius, w hen he relies up on the opinion o f lo w ly Dam etas and m akes him his m ost-trusted ad viso r. The noble host K alendar tells his new guest M usidorus: [I fear] m y m aster w ill in the end w ith his cost fin d th at his office is no t to m ake m en but to use m en as m en are, no m ore th an a horse w ill be taught to hunt, o r an ass to manage.36 To value a ll m en the sam e is to disregard the public id e n tity courtiers lik e Sidney and G re v ille so ca re fu lly constructed. K alendar th en describes the lo w -b o rn Dam etas and his fa m ily in rather m ean-spirited term s: [D am etas is] the m ost a rra n t doltish clow n th at I th in k ever was w ith o u t the p riv ile g e o f a bauble, w ith his w ife M iso and d au g h ter M opsa, in w hom no w it can devise an yth ing w h erein th ey m ay pleasure her bu t to exercise her patience and to save fo r a fo il o f her perfections. This loutish clow n is such th a t yo u never saw so ill-fa v o u re d a v izo r, his b eh avio u r such th a t he is beyond the degree o f ridiculous; and fo r his ap parel, even as I w ould w ish him : M iso his w ife , so handsom e a beldam that only h er face and her splayfoot have m ade her accused for a w itch; only one good p o in t she h a th , th at she observes decorum . having a fro w a rd m in d in a w retched body.37 (em phasis m in e ) Dam etas and M iso are not o n ly foolish, they are also genetically in fe rio r as w ell.38 Th eir class id e n tity is exposed in their outw ard appearance. 3 6A rcad ia, p. 79. 37A rcadia. p. 77. 3»Daughter M opsa fu rth e r demonstrates her social in fe rio rity through her speech. M a u rice Evans explains, "Sidney has in ten sified the expression o f M opsa's illite ra c y by heightening the n ative formlessness o f her n arrative— 'a n d . . . and . . . and so . . . so . . . and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 37 C lass D istinctions The concept o f courtesy is central to o u r understanding o f Elizabethans, as w e ll as th eir understanding o f them selves and th eir assigned roles. As Frank W higham w rites, "The received sense o f personal id en tity, seen as founded on G od-given attributes such as b irth , was slow ly giving w ay to the m ore m odem n o tio n that the in d iv id u a l creates him self by his own actions."39 Through the fusion o f the m ost w a rlik e and most gentle aspects o f society. Renaissance courtesy creates a com plicated dynam ic between those who possess and lack special inborn, yet allegedly visible, graces. In the sixteenth century, the distin ctio n betw een the gentle and not gentle was of great concern to the English. It separated those who supported them selves th ro ugh m anual labor from those w ho w ere free o f any obligation to w o rk at a ll. The term gentry, once used to describe the low er landed aristocracy, w ho were in the caste betw een n o b ility and yeomen, expanded to include the higher stratum o f n o b ility as w ell. Economic and p o litic al conditions had favored the landed g en try and even some pow erful m erchants; those w ho had reached the fin an cial level know n to the so . . . '— and w eaving into it m ore cliches and litera ry tags than w ould norm ally be there. It is rhetoric bu t rh eto ric fo r the low er classes— w hat Sidney elsew here calls 'such a kin d o f rh eto ric as weeded out all flow ers o f rhetoric." M aurice Evans, "In tro d u ctio n " to Sir P hilip Sidney, T h e Countess o f Pem broke's A rcad ia, ed. M aurice Evans (N ew York: Penguin, 1977, rp t. 1987), p. 17. 39prank W higham , A m b itio n and P rivilege: The Social Tropes o f E lizabethan Courtesy Theory (Berkeley: U C Press, 1984), p. x. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 38 aristocracy sought social acknow ledgem ent o f th eir increased economic status. Lawrence Stone notes th at m em bers o f gentry w ith genuine genealogies em phasized them and som etim es creatively revised them to m aintain th eir social position, and th at those whose present economic situation was more im pressive than th eir past pedigrees purchased fabricated fam ily histories and coats o f anns.40 Despite the fact that the in d iv id u a l desires for social status appear to stem from egotism , the curren t phenom enon involved more than the petty vanities o f the new ly rich. The rew ards that accom panied a respected genealogy w ere quite tangible. G entlefolk benefitted from num erous privileges throughout the country. No m atter the severity o f th eir actions, gentles escaped corporal punishm ent, to w hich the lo w er classes w ere subject. Gentles held all p o litical power and freq uen tly used it to prevent any social m o b ility for their vulgar inferiors. U nder sum ptuary law s, gentles could w ear better clothing and eat more food than m em bers o f the lo w er levels. Even in church, the purchase of private pews reinforced the real benefits o f social rank. Given such privileges, the m em bers o f this elite tru ly believed that th e ir pedigrees en titled them to far m ore th an the low er segments o f the population; the extent to which they held this view is staggering: W hen L o rd H e rb e rt o f C h erb u ry was sh ipw recked at Dover in 1609 he leaped in to the orily rescue boat, used his 40Lawrence Stone, Crisis o f the Aristocracy 1558-1641 (Oxford: Q aredon Press, 1965), p. 23. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 39 d raw n sw o rd to p rev en t anyone b u t S ir Thom as Lucy from en tering , an d then deserted the sinking ship and its crew and m ade fo r th e safety of the shore— an action he was not asham ed to record in his autobiography .41 Such an extrem e exam ple illu strates the significance o f the concept o f order in the English Renaissance; the m aintenance o f a social system was a defining characteristic o f this p e r io d .42 Renaissance w riters took great péiins to arrange ranks o f society, genres o f lite ra tu re , heavenly creatures, and even the bodily hum ors. Fading Borders o f Courtesy This insistence on the concept o f order was m otivated by the political and economic conditions th a t threatened social n o b ility . The m em bers of the n o b ility , whose m ain co n trib u tio n was directly lin ked w ith th e ir m ilita ry function, were now not as useful to the state as those train ed in la w and po licy. W ithout m ajor fo reig n w ars in w hich to prove them selves, the 4iStone, p. 30. 42Even w hen S ir Thom as Elyot keenly acknow ledges th at gentles and th eir pow er w ere en tirely constituted by this hierarchy and not by any in tern al su p erio rity, he argues for its necessity to society; "[Tjake away order fi-om a ll things, w hat should then rem ain? . . . chaos . . . [W ]here there is any lack o f order needs m ust be p e rp etu al conflict, and in things subject to n atu re nothing of him self o nly m ay be nourished; but w hen he had destroyed th at w herew ith he do th p articip ate by the order o f his creation, he him self o f necessity m ust th en perish, where o f ensueth un iversal dissolution." Sir Thom as E ly o t, Th e Boke Nam ed the G o vem o u r. 1537, rp t. w ith m odernized spelling as Book Nam ed the G o vern o r, ed. S. E. Lehm berg, Everym an's L ib rary 227 (N ew York: D u tto n , 1962), p. 2. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 40 n o b ility lost a chief means to fam e and reinforce th e ir s u p e r io r it y .43 F ritz Caspar! explains: A m an w ith good p rac tica l know ledge o f p o litic a l a ffa irs in his ow n and in o th e r countries, w ith a know ledge o f 'le tte rs ' and the la w w as m ore useful th an a ch ivalro u s w arrio r. Th e k n ig h t on horseback had ceased to be a decisive m ilita ry fig u re , an d E ngland no lo n g er w as involved as deeply in m ilita ry affairs on the C o n tinen t as she had been du ring th e H un dred Years' W a r.4 4 The T udo r monarchs lacked both the need fo r m ilita ry expertise, b u t m ore im p o rtantly, they lacked the desire fo r i t They d id not w elcom e the presence o f any noble arm y w ith the po w er to riv a l royal rule. As the aristocracy lost its m ilita ry function, m em bers sought new methods to distin guish them selves as high-ranking society. Sim ultaneously, the o ld codes o f p rivileg e were being encroached upon by the baser citizens o f E ngland. In addition to the lack o f a visible arena to display gentle su p erio rity, the aristocracy suffered a loss o f another m ethod to determ ine and assert one's nobility, neimely o ffic ia l title s and fam ily names. In response to her fin ancial constraints, E lizabeth handed ou t titles to some servants instead o f paying them . These titles, once an easy m ethod to distinguish social rank and personal character, lost th eir valu e as they became easier to obtain. Pedigrees 43Joan Sim on, E ducation and Society in T u d o r England (London: Cam bridge UP, 1966), p. 55. 44Fritz Caspari, H u m an ism and Social O rd er in T u d o r England (Chicago: U o f Chicago Press, 1954), rpL in Classics in E ducation 34 (N ew York: C olum bia U n iv e rs ity Teachers C ollege Press, 1968), p. 13. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 41 had been created fo r those w ho could affo rd them , an d true descendants o f upper classes found them selves com peting w ith new gentry whose ancestors w ere low ly tradesm en. Sum ptuary legislation had attem pted to establish clear lines between social classes by dictating the proper fashions to be w orn by each caste. But in 1593, P h ilip Stubbes com plained o f such a m ingle m angle of ap pareil . . . th at it is verie hard to know e w ho is noble, w ho is w o rsh ipfuU , w ho is a gentlem an, w ho is not. . . . This is a great confusion and a general disorder, G od be m ercifuU unto us.'^s The sixteenth-century English book m arket offers evidence of the ubiquity o f such concerns. Popular courtesy guides, such as Baldesar Castiglione's Book o f the C o u rtier and G iovanni d ella Casa's Galateo. ostensibly had the pow er to m ake their readers socially acceptable. M ore likely, these texts helped so lid ify the barriers they claim ed to offer transcendence from . As W higham w rites: "[T ]h e corpus o f Renaissance courtesy literatu re began to develop at a tim e w hen an exclusive sense o f aristocratic id en tity was being stolen, or at least encroached upon by a horde o f y o u n g m e n n o t b o m to it."46 Sir H enry Sidney w rites to his son, the fu tu re Elizabethan courtier Sir P h ilip Sidney in 1566 th a t "there is nothing th at w in n eth so m uch w ith so 45quoted in Stone, p. 28. 46W higham , p . 5. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 42 little cost."47 Authors o f courtesy books acknowledge not on ly the artifice o f the courtesy code, bu t also the im portance that the defined qualities o f a courtier appear to be m anifested in h im by b irth , not learn in g ^* Though forced to adm it th at bo th gentle and lo w er class citizens could perform the same duties, these authors argued th at nobles could com plete tasks w ith a special inborn grace; For noble b irth is lik e a b rig h t lam p th at makes m anifest and visible deeds both good and bad .... It alm ost alw ays happens that, in the profession o f arms, as w e ll as in other w o rth y pursuits, those w h o are m ost distinguished are m en o f noble b irth , because natu re has im p la n te d in everything th a t h id d en seed w h ich gives a certain force and q u ality o f its ow n essence to a ll th at springs from it, m aking it like itself.49 A ll action o f a true gentlem an should appear to be effortless. The n o b ility differentiate themselves in term s o f the m an n er in w hich they claim they can perform th eir duties; such a m anner can be determ ined on ly by 47quoted in John E. M ason, G entlefolk in the M aking: Studies in the H istory o f English C ourtesy Literatu re and R elated Topics from 1531 to 1774 (Philadelphia: U o f Pennsylvania P, 1935), p. 29. 4«Detailing the im portance o f good breeding, Rabelais describes the Thelem ite m onastery as an o rd er w ith one basic rule: "D o W hat Thou W ilt. Because m en th at are free, w ell-born, w ell-b red , and conversant in honest com panies have naturally an in s tin c t and spur that prom peth them unto virtu o u s actions, and w ith draw s them from vice, w hich is called h o n o u r." Book I, Chapter LV H in Francois Rabelais, The W orks of Rabelais (N ew York: Tudo r Publishing Company, 1930, rp t. 1963). 49Baldesar C astiglione, The Book of the C o u rtier, trans. Charles S. Singleton (N ew York: D oubleday A nchor Books, 1959) p. 28. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 43 those already acknow ledged as members o f high society. The border was visible (o r at least alleged to be so); the v is ib ility o f such difference validated its presence. Thus, as w estern European m onarchs began to prefer the counsel o f those w ith hum anist educations over those w ith pedigrees and w arring skills, nobles sought ways to redraw the class boundaries in m eaningful ways. These attem pts to assert sig nifican t distinctions betw een gentles and nongentles suggest m ore than p rid e fu l pom p, b u t the extent to w hich such claim s o f su p erio rity w ere under threat: "The effect of this practical in tellectu al struggle was to articulate a sophisticated rhetoric, indeed an epistem ology, o f personal social id en tity— a new understanding of how people te ll w ho they a re " 5 0 (em phasis his). This desire fo r appearance to conform to in n er w o rth was also held by those outside the co urt. Even the Puritans, w ho h a n d ily denied the privileged status o f ro yal b irth w hen they executed C harles I, experienced sim ilar anxiety about w ho am ong them w ere m em bers o f G od's elect and w ho were m ere hypocrites. W ith in three generations o f lan d in g in A m erica, the church disbanded, never to resolve the problem o f ho w to know w hich members w ere saved. This early m odem trope o f the visib le as real reverberates throughout the texts o f the period. sow higham , p. x. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 44 Ocular Proof o f N oble Identity In his discussion o f early m odem social order, C u rtis B row n W atson makes the com parison betw een class and racial id entities q u ite explicit: The basic assum ption o f aristocratic theory w as, fu rth e r, th at the noblem an w ould be less lik e ly to be vicious than the com m on m an. . . . [One argum ent advanced] bears a s trik in g resem blance to racial doctrines o f o u r ow n 20th century, although the p u rity o f blood desired was th at o f a class elite ra th e r than one of race.si (em phasis m ine) In term s o f Renaissance courtesy, this emphasis on pu re bloodlines was alleged to be m anifested in one's natural grace. W higham elaborates: [T jh ere arose a basic governing prin ciple of the display o f effortlessness, C astig lio n e's sprezzaturra. d e sig n ed to im p ly the n a tu ra l o r given status o f one's social id e n tity and to deny an y earned character, any lab o r o r a rriv a l from a social e ls e w h e r e .5 2 The im pulse to depict social constructions as inherent tru th s o f nature suggests the extent to w h ich the upper class and its in stitutio ns fe lt threatened. H o w ever, such defensive m aneuvers are m anifested in a naturalized presentation o f class. DoUimore explains: Those w ho ru le m ay in fact be serving th eir ow n interest and those o f th e ir class, bu t th ey, to g eth er w ith the institutions and practices through w hich they exercise and siC u rtis B row n W atson, "The Social and P o litic a l O rd er," in The E lizabethan A ge, ed. D onald Stevenson (G reenw ich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications, 1966, rp t. 1967), p. 37. H e supports his claim w ith a reference to C o rn w allis, "[S]ince Tim e hath d is tild our bloods emd separated us from th e crow de, I holde n o b ility bound no t to com m it any action tasting o f a degenerate hum or," p. 38. 52W higham , p . 33. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 45 m ain ta in p o w er, are u n d e rsto o d as w o rk in g in th e in te re s ts o f th e c o m m u n ity . S eco n d ly, th ro u g h leg itim atio n o f the existin g social order— th at is, existing social relations— are 'n a tu ra lis e d ," thus appearing to have the unalterable character o f n atu ral la w .5 3 A n essential requirem ent for arguing th at a distinction is "n atu ral" is the a b ility to dem onstrate visibly such difference. In courtesy guides and Sidney's rom ance, class hierarchy is stressed as the em bodim ent o f a structure inherent in hum ans. Just as the nobles are distinguished by a visible grace, those bom to be servants are m arked by th e ir appearance. In A rcadia, even those exploited by the system accept it as v a lid social stratification. W hen a ll accept th eir place, society runs sm oothly. The Social Geography o f Arcadia Throughout A rcadia. Sidney constructs no b ility as a racial id e n tity , one w hich makes the high-born visibly d is tin c t from the low -born. W hen M usidorus, noble cousin to Pyrocles, is rescued after the shipw reck th at opens the poem , local shepherds are struck by his beauty: "[M usidorus is a] young m an o f so goodly shape and w ell-pleasing tenance, and that, though he w ere naked, nakedness was to him an a p p a r e l." 5 4 Soon after this encounter. 53Jonathan DoUim ore, "In tro d u ctio n : Shakespeare, C u ltu ra l M aterialism , and the N ew H isto rid sm ," in P olitical Shakespeare: N ew Essays in C ultural M aterialism (Ithaca: ComeU UP, 1985, rpL 1991), p. 7. H e continues: "This com bined em phasis on universal interests, society as a 'reflection ' o f the 'n a tu ra l' o rd er o f things, history as a 'la w fu l' developm ent leading up to and ju stifyin g the p resen t. . . was central to the age of Shakespeare," D oU im ore, p. 7. 54A rcadia. p. 64. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 46 Pyrocles's racial id en tity causes him to be m istaken fo r a god: [The fisherm en's] sim p licity b red such am azem ent and th e ir am azem ent such a s u p e rs titio n th a t assu red ly th inking it was some G od begotten betw een N ep tu n e and Venus . . . [th e y ] held up th e ir hands and m ade th e ir prayers.55 The low ly fisherm en can in fe r Pyrocles's noble lineage sim p ly by looking at him . H ow ever, the d isp arity betw een his rank and th eir o w n is so great th at he appears godlike to them . Later, after Pyrocles ends the Laconian c iv il w ar between the H elots and gentlem en, the peasants also see h im as a god. H ow ever, they have great d iffic u lty deciding w hich d iety the brave but beautiful young Pyrocles m ost closely resembles: For being now w e ll view ed to have no h air o f his face to witness him a m an, w ho had done acts beyond the degree of a m an, and to look w ith a certain alm ost b ash fu l kin d o f m odesty as if he feared the eyes o f m en, w ho was unm oved w ith sight o f the most h o rrib le countenances of death, and, as if nature had m istaken her w o rk, to have a M ars' heart in a C upid's body; a ll th at beheld h im (and a ll that m igh t behold him , d id behold him ) m ade th e ir eyes quick messengers to th eir m inds th at there they had seen the utterm ost th at in m ankind m ight be seen.56 This passage centers on the significance o f visual know ledge. The peasants can judge Pyrocles w ith th e ir eyes. H e is "w e ll view ed" an d he "look[s]" w ith modesty, despite the fact th at the "sight" o f dying soldiers d id not move him . A ll who have the o p p o rtu nity to "behold" h im , do so. T h e ir eyes become 5 5 A rcadia, p. 66. 5 6 A rcadia, p. 103. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 47 "quick messengers to th e ir m inds" that Pyrocles is the "u tterm ost in m ankind that m ight be seen." These view ers see Pyrocles's greatness in his body. H e is n a tu rally b e au tifu l an d n a tu ra lly brave. Such descrip tion echoes H om i Bhabha's discussion o f racial difference as a visible sign, "The difference of the object o f d iscrim in atio n is a t once visible and n atu ral— color as the cu ltu ral / p o litic a l sig n o f in fe rio rity or degeneracy, skin as its natu ral ld e n titv .'"57 In A rcadia, this cu ltu ral / p o litical sign o f in fe rio rity m anifests itself as a noble id e n tity , a genetically transm itted set o f physical and m oral attributes that characterize a race and class o f people sim ultaneously. In his "Defence," Sidney celebrates the "speaking picture o f poesy," as he w rites th at the poet "yield eth to the pow ers o f the m ind an im age o f th at w h ero f the philosopher bestow eth b u t a w o rd ish description."^* Sidney then argues th at verbal descriptions are inadequate w h ile visual ones are the perfect fo rm o f com m unication. To dem onstrate his point, he asks how can one describe an elephant to a person w ho has never seen one. O ne m ig h t be able to "make the hearer able to repeat, as it w ere by rote, a ll he had heard, yet should never satisfy his in w ard conceit."59 If this person could "see those beasts w ell STHomi K . Bhabha, The Location o f C u ltu re (London: Routledge, 1994), p. 80. 5«"Defence," p. 116. 59'T>fen ce," p. 116. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 48 painted," he or she could com prehend "w ith o u t need o f any description."60 In his in tro d u ctio n to A rcadia. Evans elaborates: "[T ]h e poet creates his 'speaking pictures' w hich reveal the d ivin e law in 'sensible fo rm /"6 i How ever, Sidney's insistence on the "tru th " o f the visible is in tricately tie d to his colonial politics. Spurr explains: [T ]he nom ination o f the visible is no id le m etaphysic, no disinterested revealing of the w o rld 's w onders. It is, on the contrary, a m ode o f thinking and w aitin g w h erein the w o rld is rad ic ally transform ed in to an object o f possession. Th e gaze is n ever in nocent o r p u re , n e v e r fre e o f m ed iatio n b y m otives w h ich m ay be ju d g e d noble or o th erw ise. The w rite r's eye is alw ays in some sense colonizing the landscape, m astering and p o rtio n in g , fixing zones and poles, arranging and deepening th e scene as the object o f desire.62 The object o f Sidney's desire is a N ew W orld colony th a t offers the static class structure England can no longer m aintain. Evans w rites th at "A rcadia is the accepted sym bol fo r w hatever the poets fin d lacking in the w o r ld . 3 Thus, the litera ry form o f rom ance offers a successful, class-conscious colony, if only 60'T)efence," p. 116. 61 Evans, p. 23. 62Spurr, p. 27. 63Evans, p. 37. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 49 a fic tive one.64 Sidney le ft behind no N ew W o rld colony o f aristocrats, instead he le ft the speaking pictures o f poesy to fu lfill his am bitions. 64Northrop Frye explains that rom ance also softens lines o f class hierarchy, "C ertainly Renaissance education was w ith in a context o f class and patriarchy, and know ing one's place in society was at the center o f a ll other know ledge. But rom ance tries to give that know ledge a ch ivalric idealism that m inim izes the arrogance that goes w ith class and sex distinctions." Forew ord to U nfolded Tales: Essays on Renaissance Rom ance, ed. George M . Logan and G ordon Teskey (Ithaca: C ornell U P, 1989), p. xi. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 50 Chapter 3 Dom ination By Inclusion: The Romantic Cartography of Sir Walter Ralegh As the m ost vocal proponent o f English expansion in the la te sixteenth century. Sir W alter Ralegh m ust address the fact that cartographic depictions show a Spanish-dom inated N ew W o rld . The maps Ralegh has to use to envision his colonial goals reveal Spain's success and England's fa ilu re in building an em pire. W ith the hope o f securing gold o r land fo r E ngland, he travels to G uiana in 1595; he returns w ith nothing fo r his co un try. H ow ever, rather than adm it defeat, he depicts his unsuccessful conquest in term s o f a rom antic quest in his account, "D iscovery o f the Large, Rich and B eau tifu l Em pire o f G uiana." Rom ance provides a means o f recasting his fa ilu re as m erely tem porary. The cyclical, fragm entary romance form resists the sense o f closure and certainty present in m aps and keeps open the p o ssib ility o f another, m ore favorable endin g, one in w hich England controls th e N ew W orld. Through the rom antic elem ents o f the "D iscovery," R alegh renders English expansion as an act o f benevolence rather than greed. H e announces: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 51 "AU the m ost o f the kings o f the borders are already to become her M ajesty's vassals: and seem to desire nothing m ore than her M ajesty's protection and the re tu rn o f the English nation."^ R ather than portray the natives as exotic others, Ralegh seeks to erase cu ltu ral difference by arguing that the natives are already English in th e ir hearts. M akin g them E lizabeth's vassals effaces p o ten tial difference, thereby presenting the natives as kindred noble spirits and the Spanish as barbarous others. The rom ance that Ralegh relies upon to enable openness and ju s tify colonization dictates that the colonizer m ust also be a gentlem an. This colonizing co u rtier serves to liberate, not conquer, the aUegedly g ratefu l natives he encounters. Ralegh and o ther gentlem en-explorers tend to em phasize class boundaries, described in term s o f courtesy, rather than geographic or ethnic ones.2 W h ile cartographic borders m igh t dem arcate differences between E nglish explorers and th e ir w ould-be colonial subjects, the hierarchies o f iS ir W alter Ralegh, "The Discovery o f the Large, Rich and B eau tifu l E m pire o f G uiana" in Selected W ritin g s, ed. G erald H am m ond (M anchester, UK: Carcanet Press), p. 78. 2In his Shakespeare and the Geography o f D ifference. John G illie s argues th at Romans relied on natu ral boundaries to define te rrito ry and suppressed certain geographic know ledge to m aintain the no tion th at the w o rld consisted o n ly o f the land controUed by the Rom an em pire. H e quotes a Rom an proverb th at applied the English reaction to previous European p ro p e r^ claim s and subsequent approach to N ew W o rld expansion: "The land o f the nations has a fix ed boundary: the circu it of Rom e is the circu it o f the W orld." John G illie s , Shakespeare and the G eography o f D ifference. (Cam bridge UP, 1994), p. 10. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 52 courtesy stress the sim ilarities betw een the noble natives and the English gentlem en w ho w ould lik e to colonize th eir land. Courtesy, a useful system fo r defining social order in England, ju stified both the role o f the colonizer as w ell as colonization itself; it helped to render the act of conquest as an act o f liberatio n from the Spanish. The English m en w ho participated d id so ou t o f a du ty to uphold honor, not ou t o f desire fo r w ealth . Such m otivation fits the d efin itio n that Baldesar C astiglione establishes fo r noble adventurers: You know in g reat m atters and adventures in w ars the true provocation is glory: and w ho so fo r lucres sake o f fo r any other consideration taketh it in hande (beside th at hee never d o th an y thing w o rth ie praise) deserveth not the nam e o f a gentlem an, bu t is a m ost v ile m a r c h a n t.3 As G illia n Beer notes, "The rom ance gives rep etitive form to the p a rticu lar desires of a com m unity, and especially to those desires w hich cannot fin d controlled expression w ith in a s o c ie ty ."4 England's po ten tially aggressive desire for land is filtered through the romance form , w hich allow s England to p o rtray its ventures as noble endeavors rather than attem pts fo r m aterial gain. Elizabethans desire a N e w W orld that welcomes th eir presence. R epeatedly, gentlem en re p o rt o f the "courtesy," nam ely the laten t ^Thomas M oby's translation as quoted in C urtis B row n W atson, "The A ristocratic Class Structure of the Renaissance" in T h e Elizabethan A ge, ed. D a v id L. Stevenson (G reenw ich, Conn: Faw cett Publications, 1966), p . 45 ^G illian Beer, T h e Rom ance. The C ritica l Id io m Series, gen. ed. John D . Jump (London: M ethuen & Co. L td ., 1970), p. 13. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 53 "Englishness" o f the natives. Establishing the m otivations and results o f the cartographic boom o f the late sixteenth century, I w ant to argue th at the developm ent o f a "m ap consciousness," the notion that visible borders on paper correlate to physical ones, iro n ically im pedes Ralegh's attem pts to establish English colonies in the N ew W orld.5 W hile the proliferation o f maps helps fu e l English attem pts to colonize the N ew W orld, it also helps reveal the lim itation s and defeats o f English attem pts at em pire. The concept o f m ap consciousness offers a po w erfu l new w ay fo r Renaissance leaders and m erchants to organize the w orld. In fact, the creation of early m odem em pire required the creation o f maps, the m arking o f borders.^ As D avid S purr w rites, "The very process by w hich one cu ltu re subordinates another begins in the act of nam ing and 5por a detailed account of the cartographic boom, see P. D . A . H arvey, M aps in Tudor England (Chicago: U o f Chicago P, 1993). In his archival research, Harvey finds only about a dozen extant maps of England from the second h a lf of the fifte e n th century, around 200 maps from the firs t h a lf of the sixteenth century, and 800 maps from the second h alf o f the sixteenth century. H arvey argues that these proportions hold, regardless o f the question o f m aterial survival of docum ents. H e claims that in the archives o f p rivate and governm ent estates, w here one w ould expect extant maps to be found, none exist, despite the m aterial survival of other docum ents. 6In the seventeenth century, the cartographic center o f Europe (firs t A n tw erp , later Am sterdam ) sim ultaneously served as the econom ic center o f the w orld . The pow er to create a visual, reproducible im age of the globe p aralleled D utch control over m erchant routes. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 54 leaving unnam ed, o f m arking on an unknow n te rrito ry the lines o f division and u n ifo rm ity , o f b oun dary and continuity."^ As the m ost obvious m anifestation o f this process is the map itself, it is not surprising th at W estern European m ap p rod uction surged in the late sixteenth century, w hen com petition fo r colonies increased. W h ile his exp ed itio n m em bers created th e ir ow n m aps and his geographical notes in fo rm new maps of the w estern hem isphere, Ralegh's use o f rom ance to describe the N ew W orld in "D iscovery" offers a stronger contribution to English expansion than other cartographic efforts by creating an inroad fo r E lizab eth an exploration. Instead o f describing his expedition in term s o f geography, R alegh charts relations betw een the English and natives in term s of rom ance. Throughout the "D iscovery," he often refers to the m ap he plans to include to save him fro m the m onotonous business o f nam ing a ll the rivers: "To speak o f w hat passed hom ew ard were tedious . . . w e w ill leave a ll those to the general m ap."* U n fo rtu n ate ly, the m ap o f G uiana he prom ises to present to his readers is never published.^ H ow ever, three years after TD avid S p u rr, The Rhetoric o f Em pire: C o lo n ial Discourse in Toum alism . T ra v e l W ritin g , and Im p e ria l A d m in is tra tio n (Duke UP, 1993), p. 4. S purr is discussing the w ork of C laude Lévi-Strauss and Jacques D errid a. * "D iscovery," p. 116. 9The ea rly w o rk o f John W hite and Thom as H a rrio t from the 1585 expedition to V irg in ia was lost at sea. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 55 Ralegh's report, E dw ard W illiam s presents a 1599 m ap o f the N ew W orld dom inated by England's rath er expansive w o uld-be colonies, V irg in ia and Guiana, w ith no reference to N ew Spain w hatsoever. R ichard H akluyt selects it as the only illu stratio n fo r his 1600 P rin cip al N avig atio n s.^ o In his 1585 "Reasons fo r colonization," H a k lu y t offers a very practical articulation o f English voyagers' goals: "To p lan t the C h ristian religion; To traffic; To conquer. O r, to do aU three."i i W h ile H a k lu y t m entions benefits o f colonization to the n ative population, he continues to re tu rn to the rew ards to be gained by the English. H e shrew dly notes th at the English may ingratiate them selves in to certain com m unities thro ugh local disputes. Yet, even as he speaks o f assisting local tribes, he acknow ledges the advantages such strategy offers the English: lO H akluyt, an ordained m inister w ith an av id interest in geography, collected and published The P rin cip als N avigations. Voyages. Traffiques and Discoveries o f the English N a tio n in 1598. The w ork is an anthology o f governm ent and business docum ents, ship logs, advertisem ents, and personal correspondence. H akluyt's Voyages chronicles the success and superiority of the B ritish as England emerges as a w o rld pow er under the rule o f E lizabeth, largely as a result of its naval prowess in the last decades o f the sixteenth century. C redited as England's first serious (non-Ptolem aic) geographer w ho uses stars as maps rather than predictors of fate, H a k lu y t provides practical advice to future explorers, helps m erchants fin d investors, and passes on fantastic tales fo r closet travellers. H a k lu yt's collection provides Ralegh w ith both m odels o f trav e l narratives and a foru m fo r his own discoveries. 1 1 quoted in The Elizabethan's A m erica: A C ollection o f Early Reports by Englishm en on the N ew W o rld , ed. Louis B. W right, (Cam bridge: H arva rd U P , 1965), p. 31. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 56 W here there be m any petty kings o r lords p lanted on the riv ers' sides, and [w h o] by a ll lik e lih o o d m a in ta in the frontiers o f th e ir several territories by w ars, w e m ay by the aid o f this riv e r jo in w ith this king here, o r w ith Â a t king there, a t our p leasure, and m ay so w ith a fe w m en be revenged of any w rong offered by any o f them ; or m ay, if we w ill proceed w ith extrem ity, conquer, fo rtify , and plant in soils most sw eet, m ost pleasant, m ost strong, and m ost fe rtile , and in the end bring them a ll in subjection and to c iv ility .1 2 H aklu yt emphasizes th at English colonization m ust be done w ith ostensible kindness, not obvious aggression: But if, seeking revenge on every in ju ry o f the savages, we seek blood and raise w ar, ou r fig trees, o u r sugar-canes, our oranges and lem ons, com , cattle, etc. w ill be destroyed and trade o f m erchandize in a ll things o verth row n ; and so the English n atio n there planted and to be planted shall be rooted out w ith sw ord and h u n g e r .i3 A m b ivalen t Praise Perhaps the most surprising aspect o f Ralegh's "D iscovery" is its c iv ility . H e resists tw entieth-century expectations o f exp licit degradation of the native population: "These T ivitivas are a very m uch goodly people and vary valiant, and have the m ost m anly speech and m ost deliberate that I have ever heard o f w hat nation soever."i4 H e continues his com plim ents: "[I]n a ll m y life either in the Indies o r in Europe d id I ever behold a m ore goodly or i2quoted in W rig h t, p. 29. i3quoted in W rig h t, p. 34. i4"D iscovery," p . 95. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 57 better favored people, or a m ore m anly 5 W hile this account clearly w orks to ju stify (o r even provoke) an English conquest, the m ethods are fa r m ore subtle and c iv il than those in later im perial discourse. D espite H om i Bhabha's assertion, "The O bject o f colonial discourse is to construe the colonized as a population o f degenerate types on the basis o f racial origins in ord er to justify conquest," R alegh cannot praise the native population e n o u g h .i6 For Ralegh, the Spanish conquistadors, not the natives, are the true other. D avid Spurr explains how this early form o f colonial discourse follow s a pattern far m ore pernicious than the one described by Bhabha: [T]he ultim ate aim o f colonial discourse is not to establish a radical opposition betw een colonizer and colonized. It seeks to dom inate by inclusion and dom estication ra th e r than by a confrontation w hich recognizes the independent id e n tity of the O th e r. H ence, the im pulse . . . to see co lo n ized peoples as u ltim a te ly sym p ath etic to th e co lo n izin g m ission an d to see th at m ission its e lf as bringing together the peoples o f the w o rld in the nam e o f a comm on hum anity .17 (em phasis m ine) In this case, the colonized natives are allegedly g ratefu l to be saved from the Spanish and dom inated instead by the English. Louis M ontrose elaborates: "The 'oppressed natives' o f the N ew W orld are to be lib erated i5"Discovery, " p. 95. i6H om i K. Bhabha, The Location of C ulture (London: Routledge, 1994), p. 70. îTSpurr, p. 32. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 58 from the Spanish ty ra n t so th at they m ay be m ore benignly and effectively subjected to the English savior/'^s i argue that R alegh "seeks to dom inate by inclusion and dom estication" through the representation o f his exploration as an adventurous rom ance. By portraying him self as a ch ivalric knight and basing his claim s to p ro p erty on the inherent n o b ility he shares w ith natives, Ralegh relies on rom ance to deny his com plicity in the pow er and violence o f N ew W orld exploits.19 As M ontrose w rites, "The Englishm en's vaunted sexual self-restraint serves to legitim ate th e ir exp lo itatio n o f the land."20 Indeed, the colonizer's praise should never be taken at face value, as it iSLouis M ontrose, "The W ork o f G ender in the Discourse of Discovery" in N ew W o rld Encounters, ed. Stephen G reenblatt (Berkeley: U C Press, 1993), p. 193. i9 0 f course, not a ll Elizabethans fin d a kinship w ith every indigenous trib e. In some accounts o f the N e w W o rld , English explorers do p o rtray natives as physically an d m orally in ferio r to Europeans. For exam ple, Ralegh observes th at some cannibals sell th eir ow n daughters fo r Spanish hatchets (See "D iscovery," p. 90). John H aw kins records an incident in w hich the E nglish are spared from cannibals only because they had no goods to trade. The Spanish crew is not so fortunate, as H aw kins notes, "[T ]h e C aribs called ashore, and gold showed as though they desired tra ffic , w ith w hich the Spaniard, suspecting no deceit a t aU, w ent ashore am ongst th e m .. . they that w ere taken p a id th e ir ransom w ith th eir lives, and w ere presently eaten. A nd this is th eir practice to to ll w ith th e ir gold the ignorant to th eir snares, (quoted in R ichard H akluyt, P rin cip al N avigation s. Voyages. Traffiques. and Discoveries o f the English N a tio n , ed. Jack Beeching (N ew York: Penguin, 1972, rp t. 1985), p . 109) 20M ontrose, p . 195. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 59 follow s a co u rtly m odel. "The courtier gives obeisance, b u t o nly to a re a lity of his ow n m aking," notes Joan K elly-G adol.21 The co u rtier fig u re is in trig u in g as a m odel fo r colonization, as courting itself suggests a discourse w hich "problem atizes in ten tio n and utterance, sincerity and deception."22 G iven this du al id e n tity , "[t]h e co u rtier can serve and not serve, lo ve and not lo v e ."23 The am bivalence constitutes part o f the concept o f courting itself. The co u rtier o r kn ig h t m ight be feigning concern fo r the la d y he purports to assist to prom ote his ow n self-interests. The profits he seeks m ight be sexual, or in the case o f a N e w W orld colonizer, financial. E dw ard Said, w ritin g about colonial discourse, suggests the flu id ity betw een the sexual and fin an cial self-in terest I have been investigating: "[T]h ere is never in terp retatio n , understanding, and then know ledge w here there is no interest."24 Such rem arks also apply to another agent o f colonial discourse: the m odem m ap. 2iJoan K elly-G ad o l, "D id W omen H ave a Renaissance?" in Becom ing V isib le: W om en in European H isto ry, ed . Renate B riden thal and C lau d ia Koonz (Boston: H oughton M ifflin Com pany, 1977), p. 158. 22Catherine Bates, The Rhetoric o f C ourtship in E lizabethan Langu a ge and L iteratu re (Cam bridge UP, 1992), p. 10. 23K elly-G adol, p . 158. 24quoted in Spurr, p. 192. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 60 M odem M aps and Their A ncestors A n essential quality o f the m odem m ap is its denial o f au th o rial bias or even m otive. Figures included in maps also suggest that the cartographer's function is m erely to translate pure m athem atical tru th into a visual, reproducible, instructive m edium .25 The g rid and measurements w o rk to rem ove any notion of the m ap's su bjectivity o r lim ita tio n . As Derm is W ood observes: "[N ]o aspect o f the m ap is m ore carefully constructed than the a lib i intended to absolve it o f this guilt."26 In a d d itio n to its practical value, the m ap serves as a m etaphor fo r the relationship betw een England and the rest o f the w o rld . If one accepts J. B. H arley's expanded defin itio n o f maps as "graphic representations th at facilitate a sp atial understanding o f things. 25For a detailed discussion o f the evolving geographical know ledge of the N ew W orld at this tim e, see Anthony G rafton, N e w W orlds. Ancient Texts: The Pow er o f T ra d itio n and the Shock o f D iscovery. (Cam bridge: H arvard U P , 1992). Such maps, despite the dom inance o f labels, tend to efface the p o litic al jurisdictions parceled o u t by hum ans in favo r o f a theological w o rld view . They lack the techniques com m only used to m ark difference: the use o f color va rie ty, b ord er lines, and accurate details. (For exam ple, we know a p articu lar area is Rome because o f the label, not because it is distinguishable by geographic depiction. In this regard, m edieval maps correspond to m edieval romances. Beer w rites, "W hat distinguished the m edieval rom ances is the w ay in w hich they m ake available and apparent sim ultaneously a ll th eir preoccupations, nothing is subordinated," p. 20. The em ergence o f real borders on w o rld m aps coincide w ith the colonial efforts that require an articu latio n of difference. As the com parison o f the m edieval T -O m ap w ith these later Renaissance maps illu strates, a great need arose to m ake boundaries m ore exp licit, m ore forceful. 26Dennis W ood, The Pow er o f M aps (N ew York: G u ilfo rd Press, 1992), p. 18. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 61 concepts, conditions, processes, o r events in the hum an w o rld ," then certain pre-m odem and early m odem representations (such as the m edieval T -O m ap and the cosm ographical m u ral) clearly participate in the id eolo gical functions o f m apping th at cartographers o f later, m ore q u an tified m aps, strive to deny. C ontrary to tw entieth-century in tu itio n , m edieval and early m odem cartographers tended to acknow ledge and even celebrate the alleg o rical pow er o f m aps, w hich later develop tow ard w h at could be considered a scientific endeavor. The value o f m appae m un d i and T-O maps was id eolo gical, not practical. (Even the classical geographer Strabo view ed his subject as a philosophical exercise.) D u rin g the T u d o r reign, the po ten tial usefulness o f maps was not always recognized. For exam ple, H enry V m allow ed his best cartographer to leave England and serve Spain. The surveys o f n e w ly- acquired monastic lands w ere verbal, not graphic descriptions. The lack o f an accurate m ap of Irelan d added to S ir W alter Ralegh's problem s in his attem pt to suppress the Irish rebellion. Ancestors of m odem m aps o ffe r a w ay to organize the w o rld graphically, but in a w ay th at seems to acknowledge th eir status as hum an- m ade, im p erfect The organizing principles o f such maps are based on theology, not claims o f visible, scientific tru th . M edieval "T-O " m aps o ffe r a u n ified , bu t unscientific view o f the w o rld th at does not p u rp o rt to be m otiveless. Rather than tools to d irect m otion, these charts are an exercise in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 62 stasis. They em phasize one's set position in the cosmos, no t one's p o ten tial fo r m ovem ent. The on ly destination to w hich such a m ap m ig h t guide one is heaven. The placem ent o f Jerusalem a t the center o f the w o rld illustrates the m edieval preference fo r the a fterlife to the present one, as does the "o rien tatio n " o f the globe tow ard E den (the East). The term "orientation" its e lf comes from the notion that the O rie n t stands at the "to p" o f these m aps. For a m odem m ap to be considered useful, it m ust be considered objective, free from biases, especially p o litic a l ones. H o w ever, a ll maps m ust d isto rt th eir subjects to present them ; cartographers m ust establish the guidelines by w hich such maps are produced, w h ile insisting th at th eir w o rk has no such disto rtion. Indeed early cartographers them selves deny th eir com plicity in co lon ization, despite the obvious valu e o f maps to such projects. For exam ple, w hen A braham O rtelius issued the w o rld 's first atlas in 1570, his adm irers insisted th at he was m otivated by a quest fo r pure know ledge, rath er than m aterial gain. H ow ever, O rteliu s served as royal geographer to King P h ilip n o f Spain. P h ilip 's o u trig h t patronage, along w ith O rte h u s 's inclusion o f m ap tables providin g the location o f gold, spices, and other favo rite treasurers o f globe-trotting m erchants an d colonizers, makes such com plicity quite evident. Regardless o f O rteliu s's personal po litics and sincere in terest in geography, he d id p ro vid e the king o f Spain w ith valuable tools and perhaps it is this fact th at m aps o ffer "interested" know ledge that Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 63 spaw ned such anxiety am ong his frien d s. In fact, S purr argues th at even the perspective offered by a m ap is in h eren tly an exercise o f p o w er [C o lon ial discourse] re lie s fo r a u th o rity on the a n a ly tic arrangem ent o f space fro m a position o f visual advantage. The w rite r is placed e ith e r above or at the center o f things, y e t a p a rt fro m th em , so th a t the o rg a n iza tio n an d classification o f things takes place according to the w rite r's ow n system o f value. In te rp re ta tio n of the scene reflects the circum spective force o f the gaze, w h ile suppressing the answ ering gaze o f the oth er. In this disproportionate economy o f sight the w rite r preserves, on a m ate ria l and hum an level, the relation s o f pow er in herent in the larg e r system o f order.27 Cartographers w ho claim to desire pu re know ledge rath er than financial p ro fit echo Ralegh's claim s th at he sim ply wants to help the natives whom the Spanish have oppressed. O n the English stage, m aps are im p lic itly lin ked to pow er and possession. They serve as instrum ents in prem ature battles over the land o f a vu lnerable m onarch in H en ry IV P art O ne, King Lear and T a m b u rla in e . Representations o f the w o rld also becam e the props fo r m onarchs and counselors in everyday life . L o rd B urghley, Elizabeth's secretary o f state and lo rd high treasurer, collected and corrected maps fo r his personal atlas. The queen's gallery at W hitehall was adorned w ith globes and w o rld maps.28 E lizabethan m athem atician John D ee notes, "Some, to beautify th e ir H alls, 27Spurr, p. 16. 28R. A . Skelton, "R alegh as G eographer," The V irg in ia M agazine o f H istory and Biography .v o l. 71, no. 2 (A p ril 1963): 135. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 64 Parlers, Chambers, G aleries, Studies, o r Libraries . . . lik e th , loveth, getteth and useth M appes, Chartes, and G eographicall Q obes."29 In 1589, Thomas B lun deville notes: " I daylie see m any th at d e lig h t to looke on M appes, and can p o in t to England, France, G erm anie, and to the East and West Indies, and to divers other places therein described."30 The prim ary m otive fo r m aking a "charte" of a given area is sim ply the desire fo r land, to be fought over in a courtroom o r a b attlefield . W hether as evidence in land disputes o r as preparation fo r an attack, the map is an object in evitab ly linked w ith the notion o f ow nership and desire. For exam ple, the English m ade an abortive attem pt to invade Gascony and Guienne just m onths after H enry V m com m issioned Sebastian Cabot to make a "carde" o f the area in 1512.31 In 1580, the year after D rake's ships com pleted the circum navigation o f the w o rld , E lizabeth, "having desired to know her titles to countries discovered in d ifferen t parts of the w o rld ," requested w hat m ay have been the firs t geographical description o f the countries to w hich she had 39quoted in V icto r M organ, "The C artographic Image of 'The C ountry' in E arly M odem England," Transactions o f the Royal H istorical Society. F ifth Series, 29 (1979), p. 148. 30quoted in M organ, p. 147. 3iPeter Barber, "England I: Pageantry, Defense, and Governm ent: M aps at C o u rt to 1550" in M onarchs. M inisters, and M aps: The Emergence o f C artography as a T o ll o f Governm ent in E arly M odem Europe." ed. D avid Buisseret (Chicago: U P , 1992), p. 27. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 65 tit le s .3 2 The Lines of English Power Drawn: The Effect o f M apping Critics differ as to how the explosion of maps affected E nglish view ers. In a discussion o f n atio nal m aps o f England, R ichard H elgerson asserts, '^ a p s let them see in a w ay never before possible the country— bo th country and nation— to w hich they b e lo n g e d ." 3 3 H e focuses on the w ays maps present a national id en tity. H o w ever, E ngland was not alw ays so co n fid en t about its geography. W hile discussing Shakespearean portrayals o f Rom an conquest, Linda W oodbridge claim s th at such maps depict a sense o f v u ln e ra b ility: "Elizabethan England has a sense o f herself as an island, p erp etu ally threatened w ith invasion b u t defended by her lim in a l zone, the s e a . "34 Yet, such a discussion does no t account fo r the increasing developm ent o f English exploration. Jeffrey K napp claim s th at England view ed its e lf as a separate 32Entry on "John D ee (1527-1608)," in D ictio n ary o f N atio n a l Biography: From d ie E arliest Tim es to 1900. vo l. V , ed. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee (London: O xford UP, 1950), p. 724. Once accused o f trying to k ill then-Princess E lizabeth through poison or m agic. Dee served as an occasional consultant to the queen on m atters ranging from the explanation o f a 1577 com et, how to treat her m ajesty's toothache, and how to reverse the potential dam age suggested by a "waxen im age o f [the queen] w ith a pin stuck in its breasts. . . found in Lincoln's Irm Fields," p . 724. 33Richard H elgerson, Form s o f N ationhood: The Elizabethan W ritin g o f England (Chicago: U Chicago P, 1994), p. 114. 34Linda W oodbridge, "Palisading the Body P o litic," in T ru e Rites and M aim ed Rites: R itu a l and A n ti-R itu al in Shakespeare and H is Age, ed. Linda W oodbridge and Edw ard B erry (U rbana: U o f Illin o is P, 1992), p. 280. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 66 e n tity , e n tire ly cut o ff from Europe and th at this notion o f being d ivid e d from the w o rld could be seen both as a geographical in su lt and a p ro vid en tial sign o f a special fu tu re fo r E n g la n d .3 5 M aps as a L im ita tio n D espite the facts that maps are basic tools fo r explorers, they do pose a problem to the w ould-be English colonizer. As W oodbridge and K napp have suggested, a w o rld map reveals the distance betw een England and the lands it w ill attem pt to control. W h ile the m ap shows w h at is England, it can also show w h at is n o t England, nam ely areas th at other European nations have already claim ed and areas seem ingly beyond English reach. So, iro n ically, the very maps th at allow ed his countrym en to "see" the N ew W orld sometim es conflicted w ith the vision Ralegh trie d to create. Indeed the contem porary m aps th at fu el Ralegh's am bitions sometimes o ffer little room fo r the English gro w th he desires. Images o f the w estern hem isphere often include labels lik e "N e w Spain" or Spanish flags m arking claim ed te rrito ry o r on ships. O th er m aps suggest a new w o rld fille d w ith w ild natives and fearsome beasts. In these portrayals, the land he w ants for England eith er has already been co ntrolled o r is sim ply beyond control. Thus, fo r Ralegh to m aintain his expansionist agenda, he must confront the maps illu s tra tin g Spain's global do m ination and the results of England's 35jeffrey Knapp, A n E m p ire N ow here: England. A m erica, and L iteratu re from U topia to the Tem pest (Berkeley: U C Press, 1992), p. 64. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 67 unim pressive attem pts at co lo n izatio n . R alegh s Reaction W hile Ralegh attem pts to d epict his desire fo r N ew W o rld inform ation and riches in term s th at stress know ledge and selfless service over personal gain, he does not support claim s th at maps offer in fallib le, authorless inform ation. H e argues th at only the naive w ould expect a m ap to present com pletely accurate in form atio n. H e w rites o f cartographers w ho supplem ent scientific in fo rm atio n about a given area w ith th e ir ow n creative im pulses in his H istory o f the W orld: Geographers in th e ir M aps describ(e] those C o u n tries, wherof as yet there is m ade no true d isco very,. . . eith er by leaving some p a rt b la n k , o r by in sertin g the L an d o f Pigmies, Rocks o f lodestone, w ith H eadlands, Bays, great Rivers, and o th er p a rtic u la ritie s , agreeable to com m on re p o rt, thoug h m any tim es co n tro lled by fo llo w in g experience, and fo u n d contrary to tru th . . . . The fictions (or le t them be called conjectures) painted in m aps do serve only to m islead such discoverers as rash ly believe them . "36 Such words belie Ralegh's great dependence upon m aps for both his concept o f em pire and his co lon izatio n strategies. H e plays a key role in the production and collection o f a va rie ty o f maps of the N ew W o rld . A large p rop ortio n of the lib ra ry he m aintains w hile im prisoned in the Tow er of London is g e o g ra p h ic a l.3 7 H e commissions cartographers to produce sketches 36"The H isto ry o f the W orld" in Selected W ritin g s, ed. Ham m ond, p. 173. 37R. A . Skelton, p. 132. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 68 o f French colonies in Florida, m aps o f M exico, as w ell as surveys and sketches o f his ow n project, the V irg in ia colony. H is friends include English cartographer Dee and map collector H a k lu y t, tw o o f the m ost visib le supporters o f English presence in the w estern hemisphere.^» In perhaps the strongest indication, Ralegh fosters his association w ith co lon izatio n by including globes and maps in his p o rtraits. From Cartographic to Rom antic Fictions M odem m apping offers E lizabethan explorers geographical certainty, bu t p art o f that certainty includes England's unequivocal fa ilu re at em pire b u ild in g . In response, Ralegh chooses the structure o f rom ance rath er than m odem cartography to map the N ew W o rld and his role in it. H e substitutes a fictio n of numbers and boundaries w ith one that works to b lu r such distinctions. The cartographic fictions claim N ew W orld natives have no connection w ith the English, b u t Ralegh argues that the natives respect and share the values o f English n o b ility , nam ely social hierarchy and a hatred o f the Spanish. Ralegh presents his expedition in term s, not o f cartography, b u t of rom ance, described by Beer as a "cluster" o f characteristic properties: There is no single characteristic w hich distinguishes the rom ance from o th er lite ra ry kinds. . . . W e can th in k rather o f a cluster o f prop erties: the theme o f love and 3»Even the w atercolors o f Ralegh's unsuccessful Roanoke Colony form the basis fo r the bord erw ork of a popular seventeenth- century m ap o f the N ew W o rld . Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 9 adventure, a ce rtain w ith d raw al from th e ir o w n societies on the p a rt o f b o th read er and rom ance h ero , profuse sensuous d e ta il, s im p lifie d ch aracters (o fte n w ith a su g g estio n o f a lle g o ric a l s ig n ific a n c e ), a serene in te rm in g lin g o f th e unexpected an d th e e v e ry d a y , a com plex and p rolonged succession o f in cid en ts usually w ith o u t a single clim ax, a happy en d in g , a m p litu d e o f proportions, a strongly enforced code o f conduct to w hich a ll die characters m ust com ply. 3 9 Ralegh's "D iscovery" includes m any of these elem ents: the adventure to an exotic locale, the sensuous d e ta il o f N ew W orld resources, the sim plified presentation o f the natives, the prom ise of the happy ending o f English dom ination, and m ost im p o rta n tly, the code o f c h iva lric conduct upheld by the English and disregarded by the Spanish th at ju stifies the English dom ination o f N e w W o rld territo ries. Romance and Losers The lite ra ry form o f rom ance holds prom ise fo r those w ho have failed in adventures. In his Epic and Em pire. D avid Q u in t argues: "To the victors belongs epic, w ith its lin ear teleology; to the losers belong rom ance, w ith its random or circular w andering . . . the defeated hope fo r a d iffe re n t future to the story that th e ir victors m ay th in k they have ended once and fo r all."40 A lthough Q u in t does not extend his argum ent to E lizab eth an or even m edieval cycle rom ances, his distinction presents a p a rtic u la rly useful 39Beer, p. 10. 40David Q u in t, Epic and Em pire: Politics and G eneric Form from V irg il to M ilto n (Princeton: Princeton U P , 1993), p. 9. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 70 approach to late sixteenth-century England, a clear loser in th e European race to colonize and home to authors know n for th e ir tales in w h ich noble-bom m en em bark on fantastic adventures and claim victo ry in strange lands. In these "strange lands," some explorers fin d confirm ation o f m edieval lore about freakish tribes o f fo reig n territo ries. Ralegh him self w rite s th at he m ay soon come into contact w ith a trib e th at w ill confirm some episodes in M an d eville's Travels: [0 ]n th at branch w h ich is called C aora are a n a tio n o f people, whose heads appear not above th e ir shoulders, w hich though it m ay be tru e, because every c h ild in the provinces o f A rro m aia and C anuri a ffirm the same: they are called E w ai panom a: they are repo rted to have th eir eyes in th eir shoulders, and their m ouths in the m id d le of th eir breasts, an d th a t a long tra in o f h a ir g ro w e th backward betw een th e ir shoulders. . . . Such a n atio n was w ritten by M a n d e v ille , whose reports w ere h eld fo r fables fo r m any years, an d y e t since the East In d ie s w ere discovered, w e fin d his relations tru e o f such th in g s as heretofore w ere h eld incredible.^i M a rtin Frobisher m aintains the N ew W orld as a place to fu lfill e a rlie r m yths, despite the fact th at he is able to observe indigenous tribes w ith his ow n eyes. H is description o f natives o f "th e n o rth and northw est p a rt o f A m erica" includes the follow ing: W hat know ledge th ey have o f G od, o r w h a t id o l they adore, w e have no p e rfect in tellig en ce. 1 th in k them rather an th ro p o p h ag i, o r devourers o f m an's flesh than otherw ise; fo r th a t there is no flesh o r fish w h ich they find dead (sm ell it never so fith ily ) b u t they w ill eat it, as 4 1 "D iscovery," p . 111. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 71 they fin d it w ith o u t any other d re s s in g .4 2 A lthough Frobisher does not include direct evidence o f the natives' cannibalism , his conclusions are validated by tales o f e a rlie r adventures, real and im aginary. As W rig h t explains; N o th in g w as too strange, w o n d e rfu l, o u tla n d is h , o r tem pting to be believed about the N e w W o rld , and the E lizab ethans a v id ly read such accounts as they could procure and listened to tales, taU and otherw ise, to ld by retu rn in g travellers.*^ Recasting th eir colonial failure into a lite ra ry fo rm , Elizabethans change th eir loss from being a depressing conclusion to being the m idd le o f an epic cycle, o f w hich th eir rom antic "failu re" is a fragm ent. In a dedicatory le tte r at the beginning o f his Voyages. H aklu yt w rites to S ir Francis W alshingham of England's belatedness in entering the European com petition fo r colonies: I both heard in speech, and read in books other nations m iraculously extolled fo r th e ir discoveries and notable enterprises by sea, but the English o f a ll others fo r th e ir sluggish se cu rity and c o n tin u a ll n eg lect o f the lik e attem pts especially so long and happy a tim e of peace.** Despite his disappointm ent, H aklu yt transform s England's loss in to a m ere 42"The Second Voyage o f M a rtin Frobisher in to the N orthw est," in R ichard H a k lu y t, Voyages and Discoveries: The P rin cip al N avigations. Voyages. Traffiques and Discoveries o f the English N a tio n ." ed. Jack Beeching (N ew York: Penguin Books, 1972, rpt. 1985), p. 194. *3W rig h t, p. 1. **quoted in K im HaU, Things o f Darkness: Economies of Race and G ender in E arly M odem England (Ithaca: C ornell U P, 1995), p. 44. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 71 tem porary lapse. H e w rites th at England w ill soon be m oving o u t o f its romance (losing) phase and into its epic (victorious) phase: [W ]hen I consider th at there is a tim e fo r a ll m en, and see the P o rtin g ale s' tim e to be out o f date an d th a t th e nakedness o f th e Spaniards and th eir long-h idd en secrets are now at length espied . . . I conceive great hope th at the tim e approacheth and no w is th at w e o f E n g lan d m ay share and p a rt stakes (if w e w ill ourselves) b o th w ith the Spaniard and the P ortingale in p art o f A m erica and other regions as yet undiscovered.^s Christian Princes and R eligiou s K nights W hen Elizabeth granted licenses to explorers, she p e rm itte d them to take land in her name th a t was not y e t claim ed by another "C h ris tian {Hince." For exam ple, she gave Ralegh's kinsm an H um phrey G ilb e rt perm ission "to discover, search, finde o u t and v ie w such ra n o te heathen and barbarous landes, countries and territo ries not actually possessed o f any C h ristian prince or p e o p le ." 4 6 A ccw din gly, Ralegh attem pts to questkm th e p iety o f the Spanish, who had previously taken control of most o f the N ew W o r ld .4 7 In his report on the battle a t Azmres, Ralegh criticizes Spanish claim s to colonize fo r the sake o f converting the natives, a frequently declared m o tif fo r English 45quoted in A . L. Rowse, The Expansion o f E lizab eth an England (N ew York: H arp er Torchbooks, 1995), p. 210. 46quoted in R obert Lacey. % r W alter Ralegh (N e w York: Atheneum , 1974), p . 28. 47The fact th a t Spain was a Catholic nation m ade Ralegh's task easier. Spaniards w ere often depicted as deceiving th e sim ple natives w ith papist trickery. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 73 as w ell: 'T o r m atter o f relig ion it w o u ld req u ire a p articu lar volum e, if I should set dow n how irreligiously they cover th e ir greedy and am bitious pretences, w ith th at v e il o f p iety."48 W h ile c h iv a lric romances and tales o f crusades often ju stify violence in the nam e o f relig io n , Ralegh expresses outrage at the Spanish campaign: N e ith e r have they at any tim e as th ey protest invaded the kingdom s o f the Indies and Peru, an d elsew here, but only led thereunto, rather, to reduce the people to C hristianity, th an fo r e ith e r gold o r em pery. W henas in one only Islan d called hispaniola, they have w asted th irty hundred thousand o f the n atu ral people . . . a po or and harmless people created of G od. The story w h e ro f is at large w ritten by a Bishop o f th e ir ow n n atio n c a lle d B artholom e de Casas.49 Thus, even a Spaniard can confirm Ralegh's in d ictm e n t o f Spanish cru elty. Ralegh also refers to natives w ho confirm his claim s. Such m ethods allow s him to po rtray the English vying fo r colonial p o w er as selfless hum anitarians. According to Ralegh, the n atives continually plead fo r English in terven tio n against the e v il Spanish: "O f late they are at peace w ith 48"A repo rt of the tru th o f the fig h t about the Isles o f the Azores . . . b etw ixt the Revenge . . . and an A rm ad a o f the king of Spain," in Selected W ritin g s, ed. G erald H am m ond (M anchester, U .K . : Carcanet, 1984), p . 74. 49"Azores," p. 75. In fact, Ralegh argues that the true goal o f Spain is to enslave the entire w o rld : "[T h e Spaniard] useth his pretence o f relig ion, for no other purpose, b u t to bew itch us from the obedience o f our natural prince, thereby hoping in tim e to bring us to slavery and subjection." Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 74 th e ir neighbors, a ll holding th e Spaniards fo r a com m on enem y."50 H e w rites o f the Spanish cruelties described by visiting local men: [E ]v e ry n ig h t th ere cam e some w ith m ost lam en tab le com plaints o f his cru elty, how he had d ivid e d the island and g iven to every soldier a part, th at he m ade the ancient C ad q ui w hich w ere Lords o f the country to be th eir slaves, th at he kep t them in chains, and dro p ped th e ir naked bodies w ith b u rn in g bacon, and o th er such to rm en ts, w hich I found afterw ards to be true.Sî N o t o n ly have the Spanish com m itted egregious acts against vulnerable natives, but they have u tte rly disregarded the indigenous pow er structures by enslaving the N e w W o rld n o b ility , nam ely the "an d en t ca d q u i." Like proper respect fo r sodal dasses, proper relations betw een the sexes fo rm an im po rtant m ark o f d v iliz e d behavior. In his w ritin g on chivalry, Ram on L u ll notes th at the kn ig h t m ust "protect the w eak, w om en, w idow s and o rp h a n s ." 5 2 Ralegh em phasizes the fact th at the Spanish have not m aintained such codes around local wom en. In his 'D is co v ery," he relays stories o f Spaniards w ho rape natives: [T ]hey begin to conceive the deceit and purpose o f the Spaniards, w ho indeed (as they confessed) took from them both th eir w ives, and daughters d a ily, and used them fo r satisfying th e ir o w n lusts, espedally such as they took in 50"Discovery," p. 95. 5 Î "D iscovery," p. 82. 52quoted in M aurice Keen, C hivalry (N ew H aven: Yale UP, 1984), p. 9. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 75 this m atter by strength.53 Ralegh continues to connect English su p erio rity w ith th e ir sexual self- restraint: But I protest before the m ajesty o f the liv in g God, that I neither know nor believe, th at any o f our com pany one or other, ever knew any o f th e ir w om en, and yet we saw m any hu ndreds, an d had m any in o u r p o w er, and o f those very young, and excellenüy favo u red w hich came among us w ith o u t deceit, stark n a k e d .5 4 Rather than portray his expeditions as hostile invasions m otivated by the potential fo r w ealth and status, Ralegh depicts his visits to the N ew W orld as chivalric quests m otivated by his d u ty to protect the helpless natives .55 Thus, by incorporating elem ents o f rom ance, particularly the role o f the d u tifu l knight, Ralegh blurs the borders betw een England and the Am ericas to organize the N ew W o rld in a w ay that conceals his colonial desires and failures under an existing poetic m odel. Romance, "alw ays concerned w ith the f u lf illm e n t o f d e s ire s ,"56 53'T)iscovery," p. 100. 54'T)iscovery," p. 100. 55Spanish explorers used sim ilar strategies. C ertain tribes need European protection from other indigenous groups, according to H em an Cortes. They "asked me to p rotect them from that great lo rd who held them by t^ a n n y and by force, and took aw ay th eir children to sacrifice his idols." Letters from M exico, trans. A .R . Pagden (N ew York: Grossman Publishers, 1971), p p. 50-51. 56Beer, p. 12. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 76 "remakes the w o rld in the im age o f d e s ir e ."57 ih his "D iscovery," Ralegh follow s this p attern through a rom ance th at expresses the w o rld im age he desires: The country is alread y discovered, m any nations w o n to her M ajesty's lo ve and obedience, and those S paniards w h ic h have la te s t and longest lab o u red a b o u t th e conquest, beaten o u t, discouraged and disgraced, w h ic h am ong these nations w ere thought in v in d b le .s s Indeed, Ralegh's transfer o f his ow n desire to indigenous tribes goes so far as to suggest they desire exactly w hat England desires: Elizabethans in pow er and the Spanish rem oved from the area. As M ontrose states, "The circuitous m ovem ent o f Ralegh's discourse at once adm ires the Indian s fo r th e ir innocent trust and displaces onto the Spanish the im p lic it b etraya l o f th at trust w hich is at the h eart o f the English e n te rp ris e ." 5 9 England in A m erica A lthough the E nglish w ere not the first in the w estern hem isphere, they argue th at th eir claim to the land is stronger than the Spanish claim because they m aintain th at the English have a natural a ffin ity w ith the natives. Instead o f m erely advertising the exotic elem ents o f his jo urn ey, the gentlem an-explorer finds England everyw here he goes. E arly travellers sim ultaneously exported England and found it throughout the globe. Ralegh 57Beer, p. 79. ss'THscovery," p. 122. 59Montrose, p . 198. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 77 even finds a w om an who rem inds him o f hom e: [I]n a ll m y life 1 have seldom seen a b etter favo u red w om an: She was o f good statu re, w ith black eyes, fa t o f body, of an excellent countenance. . . . 1 have seen a lad y in E ngland so lik e to h e r, as b u t fo r the d ifferen ce o f colour, I w ould have sw orn m ig h t have been the s a m e .6 0 Such lines echo the Spurt's claim I refe rred to e a rlie r in this ch ap ter [T]he ultim ate aim o f co lonial discourse is not to establish a rad ic al opposition betw een co lo n izer and colonized. It seeks to dom inate by in clu sio n and dom estication rath er th an by a confrontation w h ich recognizes the independent id e n tity o f the O th er .61 S p u rt's observations help explain w h y even scien tifically-in clin ed exp ed itio n m em bers lik e Thom as H a rrio t continue to o ffe r evidence o f natives w ith English sym pathies. In his "B rief and T ru e R eport o f the N ew Found Land o f V irg in ia ," H a rrio t is also invested in the notion that the natives really w elcom e these visitors. H is speculation th a t the natives w ill grow to be m ore English, once they realize the su p erio rity o f the European m ind dem onstrates a com m on trope o f colonial discourse: In respect o f us they are a people poore, and fo r w ant o f s k ill and judgem ent in th e kn o w led g e and use o f o u r 60'T)iscovery," p. 103. O f course, Ralegh was not the only one w ho found England in A m erica. O n ly a few years later, a group o f explorers is so convinced th at a local trib e speaks W elsh, they ask a W elsh speaker to serve as in te rp re te r. Y et perhaps the m ost extrem e instance occurs w hen K in g James com plains that com m oner John R olfe had not sought ro yal perm ission to m arry the "In d ia n princess" Pocahontas, since it was a un ion o f m ixed classes th at req u ired his ap p ro val. 6iS p urr, p. 32. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 78 things, doe esteem e o u r trifle s before thinges o f g reater value: A nd b y how e m uch they upon due concideration sh all fin d e o u r m an n er o f know ledges and craftes to exceede th eirs in p e rfe c tio n , and speed fo r d o in g or execution, b y so m uch the m ore is it probable th at they shoulde d esire o u r frien d sh ip s & lo ve, and have the greater respect fo r pleasing and obeying us, w hereby m ay bee hoped if m eanes o f good governm ent bee used, th at they m ay in sh o rt tim e be brough t to d v ü itie , and the im bradng o f tru e r e l i g i o n . 6 2 Again, 1 retu rn to S purr's discussion: This rh e to ric a l a p p ro p ria tio n o f no n-W estem peoples insists on th e ir id e n tific a tio n w ith the basic values o f W estern c iv iliz a tio n an d tends to in te rp re t th e ir acquiescence to th e c o lo n ia l system as a p p ro v a l o f W estern ideals. . . . (TJhis equation o f sim ple collaboration w ith a deeper m o ral id e n tific a tio n . . . provides one o f its fundam ental p rin cip les: a colonized people is im pro ved and ed ifie d by v irtu e o f its p a rticip atio n in the co lon ial system.63 Before leaving fo r V irg in ia , he learns A lgonquian (presum ably from some o f the natives brought back fro m previous trip s), so he is able to com m unicate w ith the lo cal inhabitants in th eir ow n language. Yet, his ab ility to speak th eir language does not preclude him from m aintaining English desire. H e continually attributes any attack on the English as a case of m istaken id e n tity . A ccording to his rep o rt, the natives w ho attack do so 62Thomas H a rio t, "A B rief and true rep o rt o f the new foundland of V irg in ia ," Londond 1588, facsim ile (A n n A rbor: E dw ard Bros., 1931), Signature E3-1. 63Spurr, pp. 32-33. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7 9 because they believe the English are the Spanish. The explorers seem to believe that the natives are not capable o f hating EngHsh people, as they share so m uch w ith th e m .6 4 The p ertin en t question fo r this stage o f English expansion is not post-colonialist c ritic G ayatri C hakravorty Spivaks' fam ous question, "Can the subaltern s p e a k ? " 6 5 bu t "C an he o r she be heard?" G u nfire d e fin itely provides a means of expressing aggression; how ever, English explorers refuse to in terp ret such violence as directed tow ard them selves. They continually describe the native h o stility as m isdirected rage intended for the Spanish colonizers. The repeated insistence o f w elcom ing natives, despite their attacks on English visitors, echoes the optim istic strain o f romances as described by Beer. "[IJn the trad itio n al romance no one is ever disillusioned. D isillusionm ent calls in to question the w hole w ish -fu lfiU in g function of the form and underm ines the fab ric o f its w orld."66 Indeed, 64Centuries later, the D ictio n ary o f N atio nal Biography repeats such claim s in a description o f Francis Drake's 1577 attem pted lan din g on the island o f M ocha, w hich was "w e ll stocked w ith cattle, w here they hoped to get provisions and w ater, and to refresh them m en w ith a run on shore; but the inhabitants, m istaking them fo r Spaniards. attacked them savagely, k ille d tw o and severely w ounded rest" (emphasis m ine). Entry on "S ir Francis D rake (15407-1596)," in D ictionary o f N ation al Biography: From the Earliest Tim es to 1900, vo l. V , ed. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee (London: O xford U P , 1950), p. 1335. 65G ayatri C hakravorty Spivaks, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in The Postcolonial Studies R eader, ed. B ill Ashcroft, G areth G riffith s , and H elen T iffin (N ew York: R outledge, 1995). 66Beer, p. 40. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 80 Elizabethans w ith dream s o f English expansion w o u ld not dare question the fic tive victories offered in R alegh's rom ances of the N e w W o rld . Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 81 Chapter 4 How to Fashion a Gentle Colonizer: Conqnest and Consent in The Faerie Oneene Book V D u rin g his n ineteen -year tenure as a colonial o ffic ia l in Ire la n d , Edm und Spenser w itnesses a series of failed English attem pts to conquer the te rrito ry com pletely. R esponding to England's losses as S ir W a lte r Ralegh does, Spenser relies up on the fo rm o f romance, w ith its a b ility to redefine defeat as a tem porary setback, to create the possibility of an English victory in The Faerie O ueene Book V , also know n as the "Iris h Book. " In his "L etter to Ralegh," Spenser em phasizes his ab ility to organize rom antic adventures according to his interest, n o t chronology. W hile describing the ro le o f the poet, Spenser also provides an account o f the technique th at allow s fa ilu re to be placed in the m iddle o f a longer cycle that prom ises eventual victory: For the M etho de o f a Poet historical is not such, as o f an H is to rio g ra p h e r. For an H istoriog rapher discourseth o f affayres o rd e rly as they w ere donne, accounting as w e ll the tim es as the actions, b u t a Poet thrusteth in to the m iddest, even w here it m ost concem eth him , and there recoursing to the thinges forepaste, and d ivin in g of thinges to com e, m aketh a pleasing A nalysis of a ll.i I "A p p en dix 1: A L etter of the A uthors: To the R ight noble, and Valorous, S ir W a lte r R aleigh knight," in Edm und Spenser, The Faerie O ueene. ed. A . C . H a m ilto n (London: Longm an, 1977, rp t. 1995) p. 738. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 82 H e w rites to Ralegh th at this rom ance is a courtesy book, w hich w ill inspire proper behavior: "the generall therefore o f a ll the booke is to fashion a gentlem an or noble person in vertuoxis and gentle discipline," w h ich m ost m en w ill read "for p rofite o f the e n s a m p le ." 2 The Radigund episode. Cantos 4-8, o f Book V often parallels Spenser's lu cid , alb eit brutal plan fo r Irish colonization described in A view e o f the present state of Ireland. Discoursed by w ave o f a Dialogue betw ene Eudoxus and Irenius. In both texts, representatives o f English nobility enter an aggressively resistant foreign land to depose the leaders through vio len t confrontation and establish an ostensibly c iv ilize d governm ent, in the name o f a greater justice. Spenser's decision to depict colonial fa ilu re as rom ance does create the possibility for fu tu re English success in Ireland , but it also creates tension because such ch ivalric quests require noble heroes. O n ly w ith the consent of the natives are the English able to m aintain th eir status as both colonizers and gentlem en. H ow ever, the n ative Amazons in the R adigund episode w ho ultim ately do consent to colonization are slaughtered anyw ay. Regardless of their responses to A rteg a ll, they seem to have no other fu tu re th an certain death. Thus, the English colonizer Spenser calls fo r in his V ie w u ltim ately conflicts w ith the gentlem an he hopes to fashion in his co urtly A ll subsequent references to The Faerie Oueene are to this ed itio n . ^Ham ilton, p. 737. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 83 fictions. W hile m any critics have read Book V in lig h t o f the V ie w , they rarely make connections betw een Spenser's colonial efforts and his stated com m itm ent to "fashioning a gentlem an." The Radigund episode centers on issues of conquest and consent, as Sir A rteg all, knight o f justice, starts to fo llo w the plan Spenser sets fo rth in his V ie w . The knight seeks to reinstate proper au tho rity, m en, in the A m azonian city o f Radegone by defeating Radigund, its leader.3 First he w ill subdue the natives, then establish true civilizatio n . The on ly m ajor m istake A rteg all makes is his m ercifu l response to spare the life o f the supp liant R adigund, the Am azon queen w ho returns the favor by dressing him in wom en's clothing and forcing him to spin w ool. Yet R adigund late r shows her capacity to be converted w hen she regrets her decision to punish A rtegall fo r his clemency. Presented as a w o rthy villa in , she never breaks a prom ise or the codes o f battle. The episode ends w hen ArtegaU's betrothed B ritom art decapitates Radigund w ith o u t hesitation. 3The etym ology o f the name Radigund has kept m any critics busy. C arol Schreier Rupprecht offers radios "reckless" and gune "wom an" in G reek and the L atin radere "to offend" in her "R adigund" entry in the Spenser Encyclopedia, ed. A . C . H am ilto n (Toronto: UP, 1990), pp. 580-81. She notes various historical m odels, especially Saint Radegund, the virtuous queen of France. C lare C a rro ll argues tiia t "rade" is Gaelic fo r "to grant" or "bestow," and "guna" means "wom en's clothes." Thus, Radigund is "giver o f w om en's clothes." Clare C arro ll, "The C onstruction of G ender and the C u ltu ra l and P olitical O ther in The Faerie Oueene 5 and A V iew o f the Present State of Irela n d : the C ritics, the Context, and the Case o f R adigund," C riticism Spring 1990, vo l X X X II, no. 2, p . 182. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 84 Spenser argues th at justice (in the form o f A rte g a ll) cannot found an em pire. Indeed the process o f c iv iliza tio n dem ands decisive action, including the occasional "piteous slaughter." A rtegall's disastrous attem p t to show m ercy legitim izes B ritom art's decision to k ill R adigund. A rte g a ll treats R adigund w ith kindness and it m om entarily em asculates h im , w h ile B rito m art seems capable o f up h o ld in g im perial im pulses, even w hen they dem and blood. Spenser, lik e m any o f his contem poraries, cannot com m it to u tter conquest, especially if it w ill m ake him "degenerate" in to an aggressive colonizer like the m uch-hated Spanish conquistador. The English gentlem en-explorers w an t the natives to w ant them . Spenser's depiction o f R adigund registers the problem o f being po w erfu l and lo ved sim ultaneously. W ith o u t native consent, as E lizab eth Fow ler explains, the colonizers m ight end up as barbaric as the colonized or even worse, as barbaric as the Spanish conquistadors: The po ssibility o f genocide recurs th ro ug h o u t Spenser's th in k in g ab o u t Ire la n d , an u n w an ted en d th a t his reasoning tends to w ard and yet m ust w ard o ff. . . . [T]he o p p o site th re a t o f a s s im ila tio n , d e v o lu tio n , an d 'degeneration' [is] th a t the colonial governm ent be altered to suit a barbaric cu ltu re and be ruined in the a ttem p t^ H ow ever, to be successful colonizers the English cannot avoid policies like those o f the Spanish they despise. Because R adigtm d and so m any o f her ^Elizabeth F o w ler, "The Failure o f M o ra l Philosophy in the W ork of Edm und Spenser," R epresentations 51 Sum m er 1995: 68. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 85 consenting subjects are slaughtered, attrib u tin g a conquest to n a tive consent disturbs, rather than settles, the tension. O ' C onnell explains: In Book V Spenser's a rt undergoes a p ro fo u n d crisis, w hich involves som e o f his m ost central poetic im pulses: his com m itm ent to the E lizab ethan im p eriu m , his desire to d ire c t his po em o u tw a rd to w ard h is to ry , an d his preoccupation w ith th e sources of m o ra lity w ith in the in d ivid u al and society .5 Spenser cannot reconcile his b elief in the pow er o f his a rt "to feshion a gentlem an" w ith his b elief in England's rig h t to Ire la n d . H is focus is a te rrito ry in w hich the E nglish them selves are the p rim ary aggressors. Instead of saving the Irish from a fo reig n po w er, he m ust m ake a claim to save the Iris h from themselves. W ith o u t the benefit of separate objects o f colonial h o stility and colonial desire, Spenser's attem pt to establish the notion o f a colonizing courtier exposes the in co m p atib ility o f the tw o roles.6 Thus, his 5VIichael O 'C o n n e ll, "Faerie Queene Book V " en try in Spenser Encyclopedia, p. 280. ^H istorically, c ritic a l readings of Book Five in term s of the colonial politics expressed in Spenser's V ie w are in extricably linked to the status o f em pire its e lf. In 1912, Edw in G reenlaw w rites: " [Ijf it be granted that the va cillatin g policy that had been the ru le o f procedure fo r m any years was p reven ting real developm ent o f the country and was more cruel to the natives th an to have the question settled once and fo r a ll, it is d iffic u lt to see w herein Spenser should be censured for the cruelty and barbarousness o f his view s. The cruelty w h ich he advised was the cru e lty o f G rant a t Richm ond and o f the Enghsh colonial policy in In d ia and o f the Am erican subjugation o f the Philippines; cruelty in d eed , b u t a cruelty th at was the truest kindness if one be disposed to g ran t the necessity o f the subjugation" (emphasis m ine). E dw in G reenlaw , Studies in Spenser's H is to ric a l A lleg ory (Baltim ore: Johns H opkins Press, 1932), pp. 154-155. Tw enty-fo ur years la ter, C.S. Lewis argues "Spenser was the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 86 choice o f romance serves only to em phasize, rath er than deflect, the b ru ta lity o f his ow n culture in its attem pts to "c iv ilize " the Irish . The entire episode, p articu larly Radigund's capacity to be converted, registers the uneasiness o f the English desire fo r pow er over the natives they wish to colonize and sim ultaneous approval from them . This conflicted portrayal o f R adigund echoes a core problem o f the V ie w . E ith er the Iris h are o u trig h t barbarians and m ust be exterm inated o r they are capable o f conversion and thus deserve to be treated hum anely. For Spenser, poetry is inextricably lin ked to the public sphere. H e rejects the self-effacing repentant poetic m odel o f contem poraries seeking governm ent positions to become, in R ichard Helgerson's w ords, England's unapologetic "first self-crow ned la u re a te .T a k in g his role as poet quite seriously, he calls fo r "a kingdom o f ou r ow n language" com prised o f English, instrum ent o f detestable policy in Irela n d , and in his fifth book the wickedness he had shared begins to corrup t his im agination." C . S. Lew is, The A llegory of Love. (O xford: O xford UP, 1936), p. 349. For a concise review o f representative critics o f the relationship betw een the V ie w and the Radigund episode in p articu lar see C arro ll, pp. 163-191. As a potential solution, W illia m B utler Yeats attem pts to separate Spenser's roles as governm ent em ployee and as poet: "W hen Spenser w rote of Irelan d he w rote as an o fficial and out o f thoughts and em otions w hich had been organised by the state," quoted in C iaran B rady, "Spenser's Irish Crisis: H um anism and Experience in the 1590s," Past and Present N o. I l l (1986), p. 17. TRichard H elgerson. S elf-C row ned Laureates (Berkeley: U C Press, 1983). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 87 rather than classical, lite ra tu re .8 Part o f such a kingdom w o u ld necessarily include Faeryland and its S ir A rtegall, w ho rides from one episode to another, settling grievances u n til he encounters R adigund. In the m id d le of th eir duel, he has the o p p o rtu n ity to k ill her, but he is struck by the nearly defeated Am azon's beauty: So was he overcom e, not overcom e. But to her yeelded o f his owne accord; Yet was he ju s tly dam ned by the doom e O f his ow ne m outh, that spake so warelesses w o rd . To be her th ra ll, and service her afford. For though th a t he first victorie obtayned. Yet after by abandoning his sw ord. H e w illfu l lo st, th at he before attayned. N o fayrer conquest, then that w ith good w ill is gayned. (V .v .l7 ) As A rtegall, the true in v a d er, becomes the em otional v ic tim , he renders the act of conquest its e lf as a m in o r skirm ish. H e is no longer a knight in ten t on deposing the queen and m aking the Am azons subject to the m en they hold prisoner. In this stanza, it is Radigund, not the kn ig h t seeking to dethrone her, who has conquered. Even though she has sim ply protected her city from a foreign attack, Spenser chooses to paint her as the aggressor whose beauty ("fa ir visage vo id o f ornam ent" V.v.12.14) seals her triu m p h . Y et, Radigund does not prevail because she is stronger than A rteg all, b u t because she refuses to extend to him the com passion he shows her. N o t o n ly does A rtegall have superior m artial skills, b u t he also has a greater capacity fo r m ercy than the queen, w hich, in tu rn , leads to his d e fea t The sight o f her pierces "his cruell «Helgerson, p . 81. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 88 m inded hart" (V .v.13.1). The stanza em phasizes not her gain, b u t his loss. H o w ever, even the A m azon's v ic to ry is an act o f m utual consent, n o t bloody coercion. Thus, the conquest can be depicted as "(air." Spenser's claim th at "good w ill" predicates the possibility o f a "fa ir conquest" suggests a p a rtic u la rly com pelling reading in w hich his choice o f a rom antic structure edioes his o w n p articip atio n in the English co lon izatio n o f Ireland.9 E ngland and Ireland: P relude to Spenser's V iew To understand the co lon ial tensions present in Book V , one m ust re v ie w A nglo-M sh relations a t th is tim e .io Before the R eform ation, relation s betw een England and Irelan d w ere re la tiv e ly calm . The English (A n g lo - N orm ans) had been settKng in the eastern and soutlrem parts o f Ire la n d since the tw e lfth century. M any concentrated in an area know n as The Pale and became prosperous landow ners w hose descendants continued to th in k o f ^In his critiq ue o f such view s, Nicholas Canny notes th at Brendan Bradshaw and o th er critics suggest parallels betw een the V ie w and M ein K am pf. N icholas C anny, "Introduction: Spenser and Reform in Irela n d ," ed. P atricia Coughlan, Spenser and Irela n d : A n In terd iscip lin ary Perspective. (C o rk U niversity Press, 1989), p. 15. 1 0 M y understanding o f this historical context is based upon the follow ing studies: B rendan B radshaw , A ndrew H a d fie ld , and W illy M a ley, Representing Ire la n d : L iteratu re and the O rigins o f C o n flic t. 1534-1660 (C am bridge U P , 1993). C iaran Brady, "Spenser's Iris h C risis: Hum anism and Experience in the 1590s," Past and Present 111 (M ay 186): 17-49. P auline H en ley, Spenser in Irelan d . (C ork U P , 1928). W illia m Palm er, The Problem o f Irelan d in Tudor Foreign P olicy 1485- 1603 (W oodbridge, S uffolk (U K ): B oydell Press, 1994). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 89 themselves as English. These English seemed to be absorbed into Irelan d som ewhat easily, b u t Iris h lords m aintained p o litic a l pow er through personal arm ies and adm inistered la w by personal standards. A fte r the E nglish Reform ation, England began to fear Ireland-based attacks form ed through a C atholic alliance, and E ngland-bom officials w ere sent to reform and establish new English policy in Ire la n d . H enry V IQ declared him self K ing o f Irela n d in 1541. Iris h lords lost th e ir private arm ies and p o litical offices, and Palesmen (the O ld English) lost corresponding revenues as am bitious N ew English officials fe lt no need to share th eir w ealth w ith eith er n ative Iris h or Irish-bom English. As fears o f the O ld English going native by succum bing to Irish barbarity w ere confirm ed by a series o f local rebellions, E lizabeth appointed A rth u r Lord G rey de W ilto n as Lord D eputy o f Ire la n d in 1580; Spenser accom panied him as his secretary and defended G rey's excessively b ru tal policies and practices against the "w ild " Iris h throughout his life, even after G rey's d e a th .ii In Sm erw ick, G rey slaughtered 600 "surrendered" Spanish troops whose lives he had allegedly prom ised to spare. In the V ie w . Irenius, a participant in the dialogue, executes a fu ll blow n defense o f Lord G rey at S m erw ick. The m en: 1 1 A ccording to Palm er, these rebellions w ere conducted at the local lev el, as no real sense of Iris h nationalism existed at this tim e: "Iris h rebellions . . . w ere most often begun by lords w ho became convinced th a t certain English deputies or in d ivid u a ls w ere pursuing policies w h ich threatened their lands," p. 8. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 0 C raved onelye m ercye, w hich it beinge no t thoughte good to shewe them bo th e fo r the daunger o f them selves if beinge saved, they shoulde afterw ardes ioyne w ith the Irish e, and allso fo r th e te rro u r of the Iris h e , w ho w eare m uche em bouldened b y those forreine succours, and allso pu t in hope o f m ore er longe, theare was no o th er w aie bu t to m ake th at shorte ende o f them w hich was m ade. (U. 3383-3388)12 'T h e re was nothing accidental about the subsequent butchery," according to Richard M cCabe. H e w rites, "G rey's conception o f m ercy was inextricable from his conception o f d u ty. A s his correspondence makes clear, he frequently executed prisoners and hostages as a m atter o f policy ."i^ C ritics w ho questioned G rey found even m ore evidence o f his b lo o d th irst in his handling o f rebellious O ld English. To q u ell the B altinglas R ebellion, G rey executed over 1500 O ld English nobles based on questionable evidence. To stop the Desmond R ebellion, Lo rd G rey led 8000 m en to bum M unster into defeat. A n estim ated 30,000 d ied from the resulting fam ine, described by Irenius as proof o f the ease w ith w hich England could conquer Irelan d: O u t o f everie C om er o f the woods and glinnes they Cam e C repinge fo rth e u p p o n th e ire handes fo r th eire Leggs C oulde n o t beare th em , th ey loked lik e A natom ies o f deathe, they spake lik e ghostes C rying e o u t o f th e ire graves, they d id eate the dead C arrions, happie w heare 1 2 The W orks o f Edm und Spenser: The Prose W orks (V o l 9). A V ariorum E d itio n , special ed. R udolf G o ttfried (B altim ore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1949.) A ll subsequent references to the V ie w refer to this ed itio n . i3R ichard A . M cCabe, "The Fate of Irena: Spenser and P olitical Violence," ed. P atricia C oughlan. Spenser and Ireland: an In terd iscip lin ary Perspective. C ork: Cork U P, 1989), p . 116. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 1 they C ou ld ânde them . Yea and one another sone a fte r, in so muche as the verye carkasses they spared not to scrape out o f theire graves. (II. 3259-3264) Desmond was subdued, and his prop erty divided; Spenser received 3,000 acres from his estate, in clu d ing K ilcoim an Castle in C ork C ounty. There he supervised a "colony" o f six households. H ow ever, England w as u ltim a tely unable to m aintain control. Its repeated failure to subdue Ire la n d successfully became quite an em barrassment. The Iris h mobs w ere capable o f defying English control, particularly given the sw am py clim ate o f Ireland and the poor state o f English arm ies, w hich often consisted o f poorly train ed , undersupplied, and unpaid crim inals and vagrants pressed in to service. In 1582, E lizabeth recalled G rey because of his uncom prom isingly bloody policies. G rey's successor John P errot issued a general pardon fo r a ll Iris h rebels, and thus, helped to m aintain an inconsistent policy to w ard Irelan d under w hich England vacillated from extrem e severity to to tal clem ency. G reenlaw explains: Frequent changes o f ad m in istratio n , each o f them rig h tly interpreted by the Iris h chiefe as signs of the incom petence of the governm ent to deal w ith the situation ; eq u ally frequent changes o f p lan , blow ing now hot, now cold, had brought m atters to a desperate state. 1 4 D uring this tim e o f ra p id policy changes, Spenser composes the V ie w . i4G reenlaw , p. 151. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 92 A sum m ary o f this tra c t w ill provide the basis fo r m y read ing o f Book Five. T h e V iew : Spenser^s Proposals The V ie w is w ritte n as a dialogue betw een tw o speakers, Irenius and Eudoxus, w ho discuss Ire la n d and the means by w h ich England could take com plete control o f the lan d and its people. The firs t section consists o f a m ethodical critique o f G aelic custom and Brehon la w as in h eren tly barbaric. The Irish can be and m ust be p u rified enough to w a n t tru e la w , the sort practiced in England. Y e t no claim s are m ade th at the Iris h should be ruled by English law . In fact, "[LJaw es oughte to be fashioned unto the manners and C ondidon o f the people to w hom they are m ente and no t to be im posed unto them accordine to the sim ple ru le of righte" ( 1 1 . 325-27). B ut such a fashioning seems possible on ly through a conquest, as Spenser's text argues th at the Irish m ust be purged o f th eir lawlessness before they can be d v ilize d : " [I]t is in vaine to speake o f p lan tinge o f law es and p lo ttin g p o llid es till they be alltogeather subdued" (U. 368-69). Fow ler articulates this inconsistency; "W hat m oral ju s tific a tio n do the English have to o ffe r fo r in stitu tin g th eir la w in Irelan d if the p rim a ry benefits o f English la w m ust be suspended in order to be established?"is The English attem pt to d v iliz e Irela n d often conflided w ith the peaceful o rd er it p u rp o rted ly w o u ld found. The second section o f the V ie w lays out a m ilita ry strategy. Eleven thousand trained and su p p lied soldiers are to be placed a t garrisons isF ow ler, p . 69. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 93 throughout the country. N atives w ill be given 20 days to surrender to authorities; these natives w ill be dispersed and relocated to fa rm lan d under English lords, to prevent past bonds fro m perm itting future rebellions. Soldiers w ill then bu m and destroy Irela n d u n til a ll rebels are dead. Even the land of subjects w ho have subm itted m ust be destroyed, as "w h at the soldiour spares the Rebell wiU surelye spoile" ( 1 1 . 3287-88). Famine is expected to w ipe ou t most resistance, bu t su rvivin g resistors must be k illed , as they w ill always be potential rebels. The th ird section establishes a p lan of civilizatio n . The Iris h w ill w ork under English landlords; cattle w ill be branded. C hildren w ill be educated; th eir parents w ill fo llo w . A fte r the ensuing culture shock, "sithens we Cannot now applie Lawes fitt to the people as in the firste in s titu d o n o f Comon wealthes it oughte to be [,] w e w ill applie the people and fitt them to the Lawes as it moste C onvenientlye m ay be" ( 1 1 . 4420-21). Such a change ta d tly recognizes the co ntrad iction upon w hich Spenser's en tire proposal exists: E ither the Irish are capable o f appreciating English law (w h ich discredits his entire firs t section and casts doubt on the necessity o f invasion) or they w ill be coerced in to accepting English law through continued fo r c e . 16 Fow ler w rites, "The E lizabethan 'ap p licatio n ' o f colonial law d id no t prove to be m orally tenable; nor d id it succeed in altering 'm ens natures,' brin ging i^Brady, p. 36. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 4 them to 'f it' and em brace the virtues o f the English com m onwealth."^ 7 Spenser's text posits conquest and consent as both necessary and not m utually exclusive strategies. W ith proper conditioning (through defeat), the Iris h w ill w an t English ru le . W hen confronted w ith the possibility that the sight o f starving Iris h masses m ay cause Elizabeth to show compassion by stopping the violence and dem oting the "auctors and counselors o f such bloody platform s," Spenser launches an extensive defense o f Lord G rey, based on his form er em ployer's conunitm ent to honor and the le tte r of the law . Those not "la w fu l enem ies" had no grounds fo r m ercy under G rey's command. According to the V ie w . Grey told the Sm erw ick rebels: they C oulde no t iuslye pleade eith er Custom e o f w ar or law e o f nado ns, fo r th at they w eare n o t anie la w fu ll enem yes, . . . y t w as then to uld e them th a t the Irish e them selues as the E arle and John o f desm onde w ith the rest w eare no la w fu ll enemies but Rebells and T ray tours . . . so as it shoulde be dishonorable fo r him in the name o f his Q uene to C o n d id o n or m ake anye term es w ith suche Rascalls. ( 1 1 . 3368-81) G reenlaw contextualizes the in d dent to defend Spenser's stance in his 1912 a rtid e, bu t he does a better job of indicting other Elizabethans than exonerating Spenser: Spenser liv ed in an age m arked by cruelty and reflects the character o f his tim e. S ir H um phrey G ilb e rt, a m an of noble ideals. G o d -fearin g , learned, védiant, had no mercy fo r the victim s o f w ar. Sir H enry Sidney, a m an o f sim ilar type, suppressed the insurrection in M u nster by the same b arb arities as m arked Sm erw ick. R aleigh aid ed G rey at iTPow ler, p. 71. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 5 Sm erwick; G rey m erely fo llow ed the orders to the Q ueen, and was at firs t rebuked by the Queen not fo r th e slaughter b u t fo r sparing th e p rin c ip a ls . M o re o ve r, it m ust be rem em bered th a t the trag edy at Sm erw ick cam e about in consequence o f th e la n d in g o f an en em y's forces on English te rrito ry , and th at this enemy w as m aking w ar not honorably b u t by the m ethods o f a sneak and a cow ard. This is as good a place as any to p o in t out the extrem e smallness o f some o f the charges brought against Spenser. . . . O f course, it seems a trifle hard th a t a p o et should advise the exterm in atio n o f brother poets, how ever rich ly they may m e rit destruction; it depends upon the p o in t o f view , how ever.^ 8 Faerie O ueene Book V : V a c illa tio n s betw een M ercy and Conquest C ritics believe Spenser w rote the V ie w in 1596, the year The Faerie O ueene V was published. The R adigund episode clearly should be read in term s o f Spenser's Irish p r o p o s a ls .1 9 Interestingly, Spenser's V ie w traces Irish i*C reenlaw , pp. 216-217. î^ In general, the h eavily historical aspects o f the entire fifth book have either annoyed o r bored critics, as O 'C o n nell notes it has received the least critical atten tio n . M ichael O ' C onnell. "Faerie Oueene Book Five," Spenser Encyclopedia, gen. ed. A . C . H am ilto n . (Toronto and B uffalo: U n iversity o f To ro nto Press, 1990), p. 283. H am ilto n claim s th at Book Five "has been judged the sim plest and rem ains the least liked ." Preface to Book 5. The Faerie O ueene. (London: Longm an, 1977), p. 525. In a rath er bold prescription, Lew is asserts, "The contem porary allusions in The Faerie O ueene are now o f interest to the critic chiefly in so fa r as they explain how some bad passages came to be bad; b u t. . . w e shall not lose very m uch by ig noring the m atter,"p. 321. W hile the p o litic a l and historical contexts p ro vid ed by the V ie w do offer readings m ore invested in Spenser's status as a colonizer, they do not close the m atter w ith a series of sim ple alleg o rical equations. D ue to the conflicted nature o f the surrounding histo ry itself, possible analogues to Spenser's w o rk actually com plicate read ing Book Five. For exam ple, A rte g a ll has been lin ked w ith G rey, as B. E. C. Davis suggests, and Ralegh, as Shepherd suggests. R adigund has been Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 96 ancestry to Scythia, home o f the Am azons according to classical trad itio n , specifically H erodotus. G reerüaw even argues th at Radigund resembles the rebellious earls in Irelan d . R adigund's consent illu strates her virtu e and effaces some uncom fortable questions about dom ination, but her sim ultaneous id en tificatio n w ith co lonial p olicy makes her b ru tal death a ll the m ore problem atic. To com plicate the issue o f accountability fu rth er, R adigund herself sometimes displays a violence in the name o f passion. She often suggests both Irish and English aggression sim ultaneously. These inconsistencies suggest Spenser's d iffic u ltie s m aking the Am azons (and thus, Iris h ) both the targets of the colonizer's aggression and the objects of his love. id e n tifie d w ith M ary Queen o f Scots, E lizabeth, and Ireland. B. E. C. D avis, "Romance" in Spenser's C ritics: Changin g Currents in Literary Taste, ed. W illiam R. M u elle r (Syracuse, N ew York; Syracuse UP, 1959). Lewis argues that the poor reception o f the fifth book ("th e least p o p u lar in The Faerie Q ueen") "in p a r t. . . results from the differences betw een his conception of justice and ours," p . 347. Y et, even in lig h t o f a concept of justice described by Lew is as eq uality proportioned out by degree (in w hich a m an "tw ice as good" as another deserves tw ice as m uch o f a given rew ard ), Spenser rem ains inconsistent in his treatm ent of the A m azon queen. In his Endlesse W orke. Jonathan G oldberg w rites of the "im possibility o f reducing Spenser's text to one-to-one allegorical m eanings, or to new -critical coherent patterns o f im age, or to a them atics that makes the poem a set o f commonplaces of Renaissance o r C hristian thought. This is a text th a t. . . generates itself precisely ou t o f its ow n in stab ility." Jonathan G oldberg, Endlesse W orke: Spenser and the Structure o f Discourse (B altim ore: Johns Hopkins U P, 1981), p. x iv . Goldberg's insights m ay also hold fo r the vacillations characterizing the earliest years o f B ritish attem pts at em pire, as Spenser's am bivalence to w ard the fig u re o f R adigund parallels E lizabethan am bivalence tow ard Ire la n d as a colonial project. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 7 Inasm uch as R adigund represents an im pedim ent to the quest, the narrative demands the death o f the w arlike but w orthy Am azon. Prior to th e ir b attle, A rteg all agrees to Radigund s term s as she describes them to her servant: . . . [I]f I vanquish him , he shall obay M y law , and ever to m y lore be bound. A nd so w ill I, if m e he vanquish m ay; W hat ever he shall like to doe or say (V .iv.49.2-5) H am ilton notes that regardless o f the outcome, R adigund replaces B ritom art and becomes A rteg all's lo v e r .20 H e has agreed to her term s before the first blow . His in itia l consent leads to his ultim ate defeat. In the b attle Radigund nearly defeats him , but her prid e allow s him to catch her o ff guard and disarm her. Once in the position to slay her, he is m oved to m ercy by the prostrate captive's beauty: "So he was overcome, but not overcom e, / But to her yeelded o f his owme accord" (V .v .l7 .1 -2 ).2 i She does defeat him but not in a w ay that threatens his status as a capable w arrio r. H e is undone, not by his physical weakness, but his capacity for em pathy. H e parts w ith tactics embraced by the V ie w and Lord G rey when he spares R adigim d's life; yet his m ercy, m otivated by lust as w e ll as gentleness, proves to be his undoing. In retu rn for his clem ency, the Am azon forces A rteg all to dress as a wom an and zoA nnotation in his edition of the Faerie O ueene. p. 557. 211 am p u zzled by Fletcher's suggestion: "The crim e is rape, the victim a m an instead o f a wom an," p. 247. The text does not suggest that A rteg a ll is overcom e by Radigim d's physical po w er, b u t by his ow n affection fo r her. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 8 perform w om anly duties lik e spinning. Thus, clemency leads to "going n ative," since A rtegall now looks and acts lik e a woman in a city o f wom en. H is m isfortune suggests the com m on E lizabethan concern that the O ld English w ho had lived in Irelan d fo r generations were devolving into w ild Irishm en. As G reenlaw notes, "M ade to do wom en's w ork and w ear wom en's clothes by R adigund, A rte g a ll is like the O ld English in the adoption o f Iris h c u s to m s ." 2 2 G reenlaw also argues th at ArtegaU's defeat is a critique o f E lizabethan m ercy, w ith his forced transvestitism suggesting the "arraignm ent o f wom anish m ethods ap p lied to the solution o f the Irish p r o b le m ." 2 3 A rtegall has deviated from the Spenserian plan, and he m ust pay a price; public hum iliation. By agreeing to the Am azon's term s o f battle, he has become one o f them. Thus, consent becomes self-betrayal if given to an ignoble p arty. By not k illin g her, he has placed him self under her ru le. Such themes have considerable im plications fo r English policies in Irelan d ; colonizing Ireland provides the E nglish w ith a bipolar choice betw een being a conqueror or being a victim . The o p tio n o f the English sim ply leaving the te rrito ry does not exist. 22CarroU, p. 182. 23Greenlaw, p . 143. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 9 R adigim d's C onversion As I have argued in m y chapter on Ralegh, native consent to colonization precludes an E nglish conquest when led by a colonizing courtier. In m any contem porary accounts o f N ew W orld exploration , the natives allegedly w ant to be ru led , n o t by the Spanish but by the English gentlem en- explorer who follow s a ch ivalric code the Spaniard has alread y abandoned. In Spenser's version, Iren a represents Ire la n d as she asks fo r A rtegaU 's help. As Fow ler explains in her discussion o f Book IV : "Once consent becomes a condition o f dom inion, the grounds o f dom inion cannot be encom passed or naturalized 'in the conscience' o f the d o m in u s ." 2 4 Instead, the people to be colonized now express th e ir desire to be ru led and th eir "lo ve" fo r the English colonizers in p articu lar. W ith the agreem ent of the natives, the English are able to m aintain th eir status as both colonizers and gentlem en. R adigim d's love fo r ArtegaU validates hte planned invasion after the fact. A fte r her failed attem pt to fig h t ArtegaU's charm s, R adigund succumbs to h er lovesickness: A t last w hen long she struggeled had in vaine. She gan to stoupe, and her proud m ind convert To m eeke obeysance o f loves m ightie raine. A nd him en treat fo r grace, th at had procur'd her paine. (V .v .28.6-9) The romance genre could offer Spenser the possibUity o f reconciling the conflicted natures of conquest and consent through the fig u re o f the knight w ho is both w arrio r and lo ver. E xploring such connections, A liso n Tau fer 24Fowler, p. 59. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 100 draw s parallels betw een the tactics o f converting Am azons in Spanish books o f chivalry and the contem porary project to convert the natives liv in g in Spanish colonies: The conversion o f the A m azons in the A m adis C ycle expresses an id e a liz e d co n cep tio n o f the p ro p e r relationship betw een the b arb arian "other'' and the subject o f W estern discourse, the w h ite European m ale. Through the persuasion o f p a tien ce, good exam ple, and reason, these barbarian queens g ive u p n o t only th eir relig io n b u t also th e ir c u ltu re : th e y em brace and su bm it to th e p a tria rc h a l in s titu tio n s o f ch u rch and p a trilin e a l m onogam y. Such was the id e a l to w hich aspired both the defenders o f the Indians, such as Bartolom é' de Las Casas, and the pap al and S panish ro y a l policym akers. T h ey believed th at, on hearing th e G ospel and seeing the good exam ple o f those w ho b ro u g h t G od's w o rd , the In d ian s w ould read ily give up n o t o n ly th e ir id olatry b u t also th e ir c u ltu ral practices and em brace C h ristian ity and European civ iliza tio n "25 Indeed, Spenser in itia lly fo llo w s such a m odel. Shortly a fte r A rteg all puts on a skirt, Radigund decides th at she does w ant to be ruled by him after a ll. She tru ly welcomes him and the advances she once disdained. The virg in who has spum ed other m en w ants to be colonized by "special" A rteg all. H er affections confirm his status as a w orthy knight; thus, a ll o f his actions, p articu larly those th at in v o lv e redistribu ting property and pow er, should be seen as just. Fow ler articu lates the conflicts th at R adigund's love 2 5 A lison Tau fer, "The O n ly Good Am azon is a C onverted Am azon: The W om an W a rrio r and C h ristian ity in the A m adis C ycle' in Playing W ith G ender: A Renaissance P ursuit, ed. Jean R . B rink, M aryanne C . H o ro w itz, and A llis o n P. C oudert (U rbana: U o f Illin o is Press, 1991), p. 48. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 101 fo r A rteg all erases: A ccording to . . . ArtegaU, the pro p er test o f dom inion lies not in the subject's voluntary consent, b u t in the v irtu e o f the su ito r, the ruler, the judge, the lo rd . If the dom inus is virtu o u s, [he argues], dom inion is ju st. This doctrine o f v irtu e , this particu lar ethics, is set in co n flict throughout the second h a lf of The Faerie O ueene w ith a p o litic a l p h ilo s o p h y th at em phasizes co nsent, m u tu a lity , and social bonds.26 Y et ArtegaU is not m ade to choose betw een these doctrines. Radigund's eventual desire fo r him effaces the p o ten tially disturbing reality entailed in colonization and asserting one's dom inion and thus renders a po tential critiq ue m oot. ArtegaU has done no real harm as an invader, since the natives reaUy w ant him to control them . R adigund w ants to be colonized, so no questions Unger about his virtu e. D avid S purr describes this strategy: C o lo n ia l discourse takes o v er as it takes cover. It im pU citly claim s the te rrito ry surveyed as the colonizer's o w n . . . . S im ultaneously, h o w ev er, th is p ro p rietary v is io n covers its e lf. It effaces its ow n m ark o f ap p ro p ria tio n by transform ing it in to the response to a p u ta tiv e appeal on the p a rt o f the colonized land and people. . . . C olonial discourse thus transfers the locus of desire onto the colonized object its e lf. It appropriates te rrito ry , whUe it appropriates the m eans by w hich such acts o f appropriation are to be understood.27 26powler, p. 56. 27David Spurr, The R hetoric o f E m pire (Durham : D uke U niversity Press, 1993), p . 28. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 102 Radigund H erself as the C olonizin g Courtier To fu lfill the colonizing co u rtier trope successfully, A rtegaU should convert and m arry the A m azon queen. Such a union w o uld s o lid ify his claim to her land and throne. W h ile ArtegaU is a charm ing gentlem an- invader, he cannot com plete the trope because he is destined to m arry B ritom art and produce B ritain's ro ya l lineage. Instead, m uch o f the colonizing courtier role is then displaced onto R adigund. She, not ArtegaU, u tilizes the same m Uitary m etaphors o f love presented by Ralegh and other colonizing courtiers as she com m ands her servant C larind a "aU thy forces gather unto thee; / Arm ies o f lo vely lookes, and speeches w ise" (V .v . 34.7-8) so th at she m ay woo as a conqueror. Thereto adde art, even womens w itty trade. The a rt of m ightie w ords, that m en can charm e; W ith w hich in case thou canst him not invade. Let him feele hardnesse o f thy heavie arm e W ho w Ul not stoupe w ith good, shaU be m ade stoupe w ith harme. (V .v.49. 5-9) W hen thou hast aU this doen, then bring m e newes O f his demeane: thenceforth not lik e a lo ver. B ut lik e a rebel stout I w iU him use. For I resolve this siege not to give over, TiU I the conquest o f m y w iU recover. (V .v.51. 1-5) The Am azon describes her plan to charm the defeated knight as another type o f battle. Sim on Shepherd notes, "W hen Radigund im prisons m en she can take 'u n fa ir' advantage o f them ; as gaoler she can enforce her lu stfu l w ill. . . . Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 103 [Slhe im itates m en in using social po w er fo r sexual exploitationTZS D espite her m anipulative tendencies, R adigund s till ranks b etter than those Am azons described by M ontaigne: "Scythian wom en w ere w ont to th ru st ou t the eies o f a ll th eir slaves and prisoners taken in w arre, thereby to m ake m ore free and private use o f th e m ." 2 9 As shown in the beginning o f this chapter, Radigund is the one w ho obtains the "fa ir conquest" o f A rte g a ll though 'lu s ow ne accord" (V .v .l7 ) and plots to replace his chains o f h u m ilia tio n w ith ones o f love: Therefore I cast, how I m ay him unbind A nd by his freedom e g et his free goodw ill; Yet so, as bound to m e he m ay continue s till. (V .v.32.7-9) Bound unto m e, b u t n o t w ith such hard bands O f strong com pulsion, and streight violence. As now in m iserable state he stands; But w ith sw eet love and sure benevolence, V oide o f m ahtious m in d , o r foule offence. (V .v .33.1-5.) As a true colonizing courtesan, R adigund w ants m ore than m ere physical pow er over A rtegall. In these stanzas, she w ants him to appreciate her charm s, a desire w hich echoes the E nglish p lan to conquer Irela n d and the N e w W o rld . The A m azon w ho o fte n represents the rebellious Iris h no w dem onstrates English practices. C lare C a rro ll extends this problem o f R adigund's portrayal by id en tifyin g h e r policy o f disarm ing captives and 28Simon Shepherd, A m azons and W arrio r W om en (N e w York: St. M artin's Press, 1989), p . 16. 29quoted in Shepherd, p . 16. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 104 forcing them in to labor w ith the one Spenser advocates in the V ie w . She argues that it "can be read as a rehearsal fo r the policy Spenser recom m ends the English fo llo w in subduing the I r i s h . " 3 0 Radigim d's failu re to lu re A rteg a ll a second tim e has less to do w ith the content of her character or the m e rit o f her plan, than the fact th at her m ost trusted servant is also sm itten and uses her "arm ies o f lo vely lookes" (34.8) fo r her ow n chance w ith A rte g a ll. The fact th at the tw o Am azons are so charm ed speaks both to A rtegaU 's ow n w o rth , visible even to his captors, and to th eir true desire fo r and b en efit fro m such male ru le, despite th eir barbarous attem pts to resist it. R adigund's and her servant's a b ility to recognize the goodness in A rtegaU suggests a capacity fo r conversion th at the narrative soon renders im possible. Britomart's Solution In contrast, B ritom art's perform ance against the Am azon is m uch m ore effective than A rtegaU 's. To begin w ith , she refuses R adigund's term s o f battle, apparently because such an agreem ent is used by Radigund "to tye her fone; / To serve her so, as she the rest had bound" (V .vii.28 .3 -4 ). B ut it is unclear how the results o f R adigund's term s d iffe r from the "law es o f chevalrie" B ritom art claim s to f o U o w . 3 i Ham Uton argues th at these aUow 30CarroU, p. 183. 3 1 Pam ela Joseph Benson argues that Radigund's term s "m ake a mockery o f justice because they leave the result to fortune and because they do not address the issue fiia t prom pted ArtegaU to fig h t h er in the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 105 the victor to exercise compassion, b u t B rito m art shows no interest in m ercy w hatsoever. A fte r a b rie f encounter, R adigund's dead body falls to the ground, and Spenser deems B rito m art the "N oble Conqueresse." Im m ediately, Talus, ArtegaU's sidekick, a convenient means to divorce the knights from the bloodshed they cause, em barks on a "piteous slaughter" analogous to Lord G rey's massacres o f rebels. B ritom art is able to stop Talus w ith a sim ple com m and, but Spenser does not retu rn to survey the carnage: A nd now by this the noble Conquerresse H e r selfe came in , her g lo ry to partake; W here though revengefuU vow she did professe. Y et w hen she saw the heapes, w hich he d id m ake. O f slaughtered carkasses, her heart d id quake For very ru th , w hich d id it alm ost rive. Th at she his fu ry w iUed him to slake: For else he sure had le ft not one alive. B ut aU in his revenge o f sp irite w o u ld deprive. (V .vii.36.1-9 ) B ritom art then frees ArtegaU, appoints herself princess tem porarily (V .v ii.4 2 .3 ), and reestablishes proper governm ent w ith ease. The Am azons m ust be controUed before B ritom art can establish proper governm ent, eith er through mass conversion o r mass m urder. A t firs t, Spenser seems to support the "take no prisoners" poUcy o f colonizers like G rey. McCabe argues that Spenser m anages to m itigate the h o rror o f mass m urder though rhetorical devices: "The victim s are in variab ly dehum anised in to an am orphous 'ro u f so that there is no recognisable in d iv id u a l w ith first place: the cruel, u n natural nature o f her form of g o v e m m e n f in "Praise and Defence o f the Q ueen in The Faerie Oueene Book V . ed. A ndrew H ad fteld Edm und Spenser (London: Longm an, 1996), p. 163. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 106 w hom one can sym pathise. S im ilarly the im agery is designed to concentrate atten tion upon the activity rath er than the re c ip ie n ts .''^ ! W h ile the slaughtered Amazons are noticeably absent, B rito m a rf s reaction to Talus's b ru ta lity undercuts easy answers. V iig ilia n Inheritance The battle scenes, enacted betw een A rteg a ll and R adigund, and Radigund and B ritom art, are revisions o f the Tum us-Aeneas battle th at ends the A en eid . a dynastic epic also concerned w ith the realities of co lon ization. In his H istory and W arfare in the Renaissance Epic. M ichael M u rrin encapsulates Aeneas's choice betw een m ercy and violence: It is V irg il's now m ature Aeneas, w ho struggles in book 12 to master his rage but ends up k illin g indiscrim inately. A t firs t, concentrating on T u m u s, Aeneas does not pursue the other Latin s [12:464-67]. T h en , fru s tra ted in this pursuit, he falls in to w rath and k ills everyone [12.494-99]. W hen he fin a lly duels w ith th e L a tin hero and w ins, p ity only stops his anger fo r a m om ent before he stabs him , ending the epic [ 1 2 . 9 4 6 - 4 7 ] . 3 3 Like Aeneas and Tum us, A rteg all and R adigund agree to settle th eir disp u te in one to one combat, b u t A rteg all illu strates the consequences o f the choice rejected by Aeneas. The failu re to k ill his opponent leads to public disgrace and the loss of an opportunity to found an em pire. O n the other hand, B rito m a rf s battle echoes Aeneas's decision to slay Tum us. Both Aeneas and 32McCabe, p. 121. 33M ichael M u rrin , H isto ry an d W arfare in R enaissance F.pic (Chicago: U o f Chicago Press, 1994), p . 200. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 107 B ritom art are p a rtly in sp ired to slaughter th e ir foes by a "token" that suggests the ways in w hich th e ir opponents threaten th e ir relatio n s w ith others. The sight o f Pallas's strap as Tum us's trophy m oves Aeneas fro m indecision to rage. S im ilarly, R adigund b o ld ly claims th at her ow n sw ord w ill be a token B ritom art can show the alleged ly slain A rteg all: "This to ken beare / Unto the man, w hom thou doest lo ve so deare; / A nd te ll him fo r his sake thy life thou gavest" (V .v ii. 3 2 .4-6 ). According to D a v id Q u in t in Epic and E m pire, th e fin a l m om ent o f the A eneid encapsulates th e problem s w ith found ing an em p ire upon v io le n c e .3 4 Q uint notes the w ays in w h ich Aeneas has become lik e a G reek w arrior reenacting the attacks m ade on Troy and thus threatens to resolve nothing and m erely to continue the cycle o f violence by k illin g Tum us. As both men are ancestors o f V irg il's countrym en, th eir b attle also alludes to c iv il wars that w ill continue to plague Rom e. These issues also hold fo r Spenser, as both B ritom art and R adigund are noble-bom , w arlik e w om en w ho desire A rtegall, and fo r England's b attle w ith the O ld English o f the P ale. Cook notes that by the end o f the b a ttle , B rito m a rt "has in effect become h e r cruel Am azonian victim , even if she im m e d ia te ly re le n ts ." 3 5 R upprecht explains: 34David Q u in t, Epic and Em pire: P olitics and G eneric Form from V irg il to M ilto n (Princeton: Princeton U P , 1993). 3sPatrick J. C ook, M ilto n . Spenser, and th e Epic Trad ition (H ants, England: Scholar Press, 1996.), p . 110. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 108 The a ffin ity betw een R ad igund and B ritom art established by th eir com m on background turns into to tal fusion— and confusion— o f the tw o d u rin g th e ir duel, as a result o f the a m b ig u ity o f p ro n o m in a l re fe re n c e s a n d th e in terch a n g eab ility o f th e w om en's roles in sim iles o f co m b a t.3 6 I n a s m u c h a s R a d ig u n d is a fig u r e fo r Ir e la n d , sh e b lu r s a n e a s y d is tin c tio n b e t w e e n h e r s e lf a n d B r ito m a r t (E n g la n d ). " [T ]h e fr e q u e n tly p o s itiv e c o n n o ta tio n s a c c o m p a n y in g h e r n a m e , c h a r a c te r , a n d a c tio n s in d ic a te h o w d iff ic u lt th is th r ea t is to c o u n te r o r e v e n to r e c o g n iz e , s in c e it s o c lo s e ly r e s e m b le s v ir tu e a n d a r is e s fr o m t h e th w a r tin g o f g r e a t p o te n tia l." 3 7 C a n B r ito m a r t (o r E n g la n d ) tr u ly j u s tify h e r o w n b r u ta lity in a b a ttle a lle g e d ly a g a in s t A m a z o n ia n (o r Ir ish ) b r u ta lity ? W ill B rito m a rt e n d th e v io le n c e o n c e a n d fo r a ll o r s im p ly c o n tin u e th e c y c le ? Is m er c y o r v io le n c e th e p r o p e r p o lic y fo r E n g la n d ? Elizabethans could not answ er such questions consistently w hen they d ealt w ith the Irish and even the O ld English of the Pale. Likew ise, Spenser him self cannot provide a satisfactory answ er. If a fem ale ru le r (the A m azon) is in h eren tly w rong, how can E lizab eth no t violate the same rule? If G aelic custom is too barbaric, how can th e English justify a brutal conquest to oust it? As R adigund reenacts English p o licy tow ard Ireland, she exposes the b ru ta lity 36In her discussion o f pronouns, Rupprecht cites V .v iii. 26-7and 33-4. In her discussion o f sim iles, Rupprecht cites vii.30 and compares it w ith iv.39. 37Rupprecht, p. 580. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 109 o f it. (It should be no ted th at Radigund's policies are fa r m ore lenient, though, than those proposed by G rey cuid the V ie w , as even Terpine was offered a chance to liv e .) W hen she attacks Terpine, Spenser compares Radigund to a "Goshauke, w hich hath seized for her share / U pp on some fow le, that should her feast prepare" (V .iv .4 2 .4 -5 ). The am bivalent sim ile suggests that the goosehawk is aggressive, but perhaps necessarily so in order to sustain her ow n life. Radigund is not a pure v illa in .3 8 Like B rito m art, she demonstrates bravery and sk ill as w e ll as beauty. "The glam our and lovesickness Spenser describes for R adigund, the recognition he gives h er o f her unfairness to A rteg all, and, most p articu larly, the pow er o f language he attributes to her c o m b in e to c r e a te a r e m a r k a b ly sy m p a th e tic p o rtra it." 3 9 S h e e v e n tr ie s to undo the damage she in flicts upon A rtegall: W hat rig h t is it, th at he should thraldom e fin d , For len d in g life to me a w retch unkind: That fo r such good him recompence w ith ill? (V .v.32.4-7) B ut, A rtegall is destined to be w ith B ritom art, and no native can survive after challenging English au th o rity. 38Woods notes that she "cannot be com pared easily w ith in such Spenserian seductresses as Duessa, Phaedria, Acrasia, Malecasta, or H ellnore." Susanne W oods, "A m azonian Tyranny: Spenser's Radigund and D iachronic M im esis" in P laying W ith Gender: A Renaissance P u rsu it, ed. Jean B rink, M aryanne C . H o row itz, and A llison P. C oudert (Urbana: U o f Illin o is Press, 1991), p. 57. 39Woods, p . 59. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 110 W hen The Faerie O ueene is published in 1596, the English have attem pted to be colonizers in the N ew W o rld b u t seem quite uneasy w ith the ram ifications o f such a relationship. Based on th eir repeated insistence th at the Spanish do not deserve th e ir colonies because they do not have the consent o f the natives, they claim th at E nglish gentlem en w ould m ake b e tte r colonizers. Yet, consent its elf is not su fficien t in Radigund's case. The fact th at Radigund falls in love w ith her p o te n tia l conqueror could efface the inherent contradiction betw een A rtegaU 's d u al role as both EngUsh gentlem an and b ru ta l in vad er. The rom ance could m ake consent ("ow ne accord") soften the po ten tial brutaU ty o f the conquest o f Ireland Spenser cham pions. H ow ever, the thrust o f the n a rrative as weU as conquest its e lf requires both R adigund's death and the acknow ledgem ent of the u ltim ate fa ilu re o f the colonizing co u rtier to save the Iris h from themselves. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I l l Chapter 5 M apping the M istress: Donne's Reversal o f the Colonizing Courtier Trope in Elegy 19 Themes o f sexual conquest and w o rld ly ven tu re, popu lar subjects o f romances, also m erge in the w o rk o f John D onne, whose biography includes a trip to C adiz and a bid fo r secretary of the V irg in ia C om pany ! U ltim ately, how ever, he fa iled to fin d the opportunity to p articip ate fu lly in N ew W orld exploration. Previous chapters have focused on the use o f romance to conceal colonial fa ilu re and on the trope o f the co lon izing courtier, an Elizabethan gentlem an-explorer w ho charms the locals to conceal his ow n am bitions and transform sexual consent (usually described as a type o f native "love" for the English) in to a po litical one. In Elegy 19, Donne condenses the realm of the colonizing co u rtier to the bedroom . Th e m istress serves as a m onarch w ho gives license fo r the expedition, the natives whose consent he seeks, and even the land to be colonized. Y et, the m istress also substitutes as the true O ther, the Spanish to w hom the English gentlem an m ust defeat to !M . Thom as H ester notes: "From as early as the fictive adventures w ith Vespucci by his great-grand-uncle's Raphael H ythloday to the actual adventures o f the Rastels in N ew foundland, Donne's fa m ily co ntributed to the lo re and ea rly history o f A m erica." "Donne's (R e)A nn u n d atio n of the V irg in fia C olony) in Elegy X IX ," South C en tral R eview v o l 4, no 2 (Sum m er 1987), p . 49. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 112 receive his rew ards. lik e the explorers w ho describe th eir new possessions in sexual terms, Donne refers to his conquest, his mistress, as "m y new found land" in his famous Elegy 19.2 D onne's reduction of the colonial scene to the bedroom com pletely reverses the rh eto ric of Elizabethan gentlem en-explorers and exposes the artifice o f the comparison betw een the w om an and the land. W hen the exchange is o n ly between tw o people, the true self-interested motives o f the colonizing courtier can no longer be cloaked u n der claim s of generosity. Consent, o ften im bued w ith p o litical overtones in exploration accounts, u ltim ately becomes figured as sexual in this poem . Rejecting Petrarchan narcissism and its colonial im plications, Donne seeks to establish borders between the poet and lady and thus acknowledges h er separate id entity w h ile challenging the colonial d rive to dom inate by inclusion. Through the inversion, D onne emphasizes the self-serving nature o f colonial "compassion" by h ig hlightin g the differences betw een the colonizing lover and his mistress. In the process, Donne transform s the public "love" colonizing courtiers 2This com parison is only one o f m any in teresting possibilities offered by Donne. Elaine Scarry w rites: "John Dorm e continually takes an inventory o f the body— tongue, heart, arm s, legs, eyes and brain— and finds the often graphically described tissue coinhabited by tow ns, books, nouns, names, narratives, cross, lens, and compass, as w e ll as m any other constructions such as beehives, a garden, and even an en tire farm ." Elaine Scarry, "B ut Yet The Body is H is Booke" in L iteratu re and the Body: Essays on Populations and Persons, ed. Elaine Scarry (Baltim ore: Johns H opkins U, 1988), p. 91. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 113 proclaim for the subjects they w ish to dom inate into private bedroom declarations that explore the am bivalence inherent in aU courtship. In this chapter, I w ill read Elegy 19 as a va ria tio n on the trad itio nal land as w om an trope, one that exposes the self-interested m otives the colonizing co u rtier w orks to conceal. Elegy 19: V ariations on a Them e Elegy 19 was excluded from e a rlie r collections and not p rin ted u n til 1 6 6 9 .3 In the poem , infam ous fo r its baw dy references, a lover attem pts to seduce his mistress w ith the language o f colonization. The firs t stanza catalogs pleas to rem ove item s o f clothing: "O ff w ith that gird le" (1. 5), "U n p in that spangled breastplate (1. 7 ), 'U n lace yourself" (1. 9), "O ff w ith that happy busk" (1.11), "O ff w ith that w iry coronet" (1.15), and "N o w o ff w ith those shoes" (1 .17)A Follow ing this requested striptease the lover addresses his mistress as "^ ly A m erica" and portrays the seduction in term s o f colonial m etaphors: perm ission, discovery, possession and prayer. In the th ird stanza, he moves into theological argum ents. "As souls unbodied, bodies u n clo th 'd m ust be" (1. 34). H e argues that only the shallow m en are satisfied w ith "gay 3Hester speculates th at the "shamefulness" of Elegy 19 kep t it out of earlier editions o f Donne's w o rk. H ester quotes a letter Donne is believed to have w ritte n to W otton: "[T]o my satyrs there belongs some fear & to some elegies . . . p[er]haps shame" (H ester's brackets). N ote 5, p. 62. 4 The C om plete English Poems o f Tohn Donne, ed. C. A Patrides (London: J. M . D ent & Sons L td . Everym an's Library, 1985). A ll subsequent references to D onne's poehy refer to this edition. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 114 coverings m ade / For lay m e n /' ( 1 1 . 39-40) Those w ith true appreciation "m ust see reveal'd" (1. 43) the uncovered bodies, the "m ystick books" (1. 41) o f w om en. Yet, it is the second stanza, w ith its suggestive equation of the m istress w ith a new discovery, th at attracts critics the m ost. Donne w rites: License m y roaving hands, and le t them go. Before, behind, betw een, above, below . O m y Am erica! m y n ew -fo u n d -lan d . M y kingdom e, safeliest w hen w ith one m an m an'd M y m ine o f precious stones: M y Em perie H ow blest I am in th is discovery thee! ( 1 1 . 25-30) In these lines, tropes usually associated w ith the "gentle" m ode o f Elizabethan colonization becom e reversed to fit an aggressively sexual scene. The lover requests perm ission and praises God, not fo r the op p o rtu n ity to assist unfortunate natives, b u t fo r his a b ility to find physical satisfaction. The mistress's body becomes a colony unto itself, a place w here the lover / colonizer can fin d success. As w ith previous versions of the colonizing co u rtier trope, the lover seeks to ensure th at his claim is based on m utu al consent, not ignoble seizure. Th e lo ver initiates his sexual conquest by stripping him self firs t and thus, m aking him self a m odel fo r the m istress to fo llow : 'T o teach thee, 1 am naked firs t, w hy then / VVhat needst thou have m ore covering then a man?" (11. 47-48). Yet, as m uch as the lo ver portrays him self and his desire fo r in tim acy as grand and noble, he also reveals the self-interest inherent in claim s o f the colonizing courtier. D espite being ostensibly m otivated by selfless generosity, the lover (and colonizer) ultim ately seeks personal satisfaction. Elegy 19 makes such u n d erlyin g truths Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 115 evid en t. These m etaphors in Elegy 19 stand w ith in a very o ld tra d itio n that equates w om en w ith p ro p erty. In the A en eid . a significant lite ra ry m odel for the depiction o f conquest, V irg il provides Aeneas's exhausted crew w ith a harbor w ith . . . curving recesses There are high cliffe on this side and on that A n d tw in peaks tow ering heavenw ard im pend O n reaches o f S tillw a ter, over these A gainst a forest backdrop shim m ering, A d ark and shaggy grove casts a deep shade. W h ile in the c liff side opposite, below The overhanging peaks, there is a cave. W ith fresh w ater and seats in the liv in g rock. The home of nym phs. H ere never an anchor chain. N ever anchor's b itin g fluke need hold A tired ship.5 (Bk I, U.222-233) The relationship betw een the body and m etaphors o f the body is often quite complex. In his "P atriarchal Territo ries," Peter Stallybrass argues; "To examine the body's fo rm atio n is to trace the connections betw een politeness and politics. But because these connections are never sim ply given, the body can itself become a site o f conflict."^ s V irg il, The A en eid . trans. Robert Fitzgerald (N e w York: Random House, 1990). A ll subsequent quotations refe r to this edition. 6Peter Stallybrass, 'T a tria rc h a l Territo ries: The Body Enclosed," in R ew ritin g the Renaissance: The Discourses o f Sexual D ifference in E arly M odem E urope, ed. Ferguson, Q u illig an , and V ickers (Chicago: U C Press, 1986), p. 123. In her study o f Shakespeare's depictions o f Rom e, Linda W oodbridge studies the lin k betw een assaults on fem ale characters and contem porary concerns of England's v u ln e ra b ility to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 116 Indeed, English gentlem an often re fe r to the p u rity o f the te rrito ry as evidence o f their ow n restraint. They take great pains to distinguish betw een th eir quest and Spanish and French conquests o f the N ew W orld. John Sm ith notes that V irg in ia is indeed v irg in lan d, "her treasures having ye t never beene o p e n e d ." ^ Perhaps the m ost fam ous instance Ralegh notes: G uiana is a country that hath y e t her m aidenhead, never sacked, turned, nor w rought, the face o f the earth hath not been tom . . . the graves have no t been opened o f gold, the mines no t broken w ith sledges. . . . It hath never been entered by any arm y o f strength, and never conquered by any C hristian prince.» Transform ing territo ries and natives in to virg in s and lovers allow s such w riters to preclude potential claim s o f exp lo itatio n by describing the relationship w ith in the established ru bric o f gender, another category used to outside attack. She w rites: " A ll te rrito ria l invasions in vite lite ra ry analogues o f bodily vio latio n, and rape, in Shakespeare, calls fo rth comparisons w ith a ll kinds o f te rrito ria l invasion." "Palisading the Body P olitic," in True Rites and M aim ed Rites: R itu al and A n ti-R itu a l in Shakespeare and H is Age, ed. L in d a W oodbridge and Edw ard B erry (Urbana: U o f Illin o is Press, 1992), p. 275. TKolodny, 11. A nnette K olo dny investigates these references in her Lay o f the Land: M etaphor as Experience and H istory in A m erican L ife and Letters (C hapel H ill: U o f N o rth C arolina P, 1975). She explores w h at she considers "A m erica's oldest fantasy," nam ely lan d as w om an, "enclosing the in d iv id u a l in an environm ent o f re c e p tiv ity , repose, painless and in tegral satisfection," p. 4. ^W alter Ralegh, "The D iscovery o f the large, rich, and b e au tifu l Em pire o f G uiana ..." in Voyages and Discoveries: The P rin cip al N avigations. Voyages. Traffiques and Discoveries o f the English N a tio n , ed. Jack Beeching (London: Penguin Books, 1985), pp. 408-409. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 117 describe unequal r e la tio n sh ip s.^ As Joan W allach Scott w rites, "[G ]ender is a prim ary w ay of signifying relationships o f pow er." M aking the natives to be exploited into "lovers" helps w ould-be colonizers e lid e p o ten tial tensions and cloaks an unequal pow er re la tio n w ith a feigned subm issive stance. The relatio n betw een colonizatio n and sexual love are not always considered com patible in lite ra ry quests. Famous tem ptresses, including H om er's Calypso and C irce, V irg il's D ido, as w ell as Spenser's Acrasia and Radigund, a ll dem onstrate th e degree to w hich fem in ine w iles endanger the hero and his m ission. For exam ple. M ercury tells Aeneas, w ho is being "kept" by D ido in Book IV , th a t tim e spent w ith the queen is a w asteful and thoroughly em asculating experience that threatens Aeneas's im perial mission and the very fu tu re o f his people: Is it fo r yo u To lay the stones fo r Carthage's high w alls. Tam e husband th at you are, and b u ild th e ir city? O blivious o f your o w n w o rld , your kingdom ! W hat have you in m ind? W hat hope, w asting yo ur days In Ubya? (Bk IV , U.361-64, 369-70) Succumbing to the physical passion present in Elegy 19 could spell the end of ^Decades after R alegh's claim s, John H am m ond continues the m etaphor by arguing th a t M aryland (w hich he w rites as "M ary-land") has tw ice been "d eflo w red by her ow n Inhabitants, s trip t, shome, and made deform ed" (quoted in Kolodny, p. 14). ^Oquoted in Louis M ontrose, "The W o rk o f G ender in the Discourse o f D iscovery," in N ew W orld Encounters, ed. Stephen G reenblatt (Berkeley: U o f C alifornia Press, 1993), p . 177. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 118 em pire for an epic hero lik e Aeneas; yet fo r D onne's speaker, such fu lfillin g passion is both the ad venture and the "em pire," the en d-g oal o f the rom ance. O f course, w om en are not alw ays excluded from the process o f conquest. L iterary trad itio n s lin k wom en and co lon izatio n in term s o f public bonds, part o f a contract o r prop erty exchange betw een m en. To re tu rn to the A en eid. the m arriage arranged betw een Aeneas and L a v in ia serves as one m odel; th eir bond is less about love than d u ty. In fact, L a v in ia is id e n tifie d w ith the land as early as the fo u rth line o f the ep ic.n In th e seventeenth century, the m arriage o f Pocahontas to John Rolfe provides a colonial p arallel in the N ew W orld . R adigund the Am azon queen m aintains a "lo ve" fo r A rtegall that has w idespread p o litic al consequences fo r h er n atio n in T h e Faerie Oueene Book V . So, even w hen fem ales are w arrio rs them selves, like B ritom art, they are alw ays p a rt o f a very public relation ship. The Role of the Lady for Petrarch and D onne N o t constrained by the dem ands that accom pany a p u b lic rom ance, Donne's poetry creates " little room s" fo r p rivate love. P ub lic, global claim s become very private, as o n ly one m an w ill in hab it the kin gd om in Elegy 19: "M y kingdom e, safeliest w h en w ith one m an m an 'd ." E ven the hum or o f this Une ultim ately serves to acknow ledging the w om an's separate existence. Donne's decision to m ake both sexual love and co lo n ial love p rivate 1 1 "H e came to Ita ly by destiny, / To ou r L a v in ia n w estern shore,' Book I, U.3-4. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 119 form s m arks another d ep artu re from poetic convention. T ra d itio n a lly the lad y of the sonnet serves as a sym bol fo r the speaker, a catalyst, object o f m editation, a listener, but o ften not an active force herself. Donne's p o etry often centers on difference; by acknow ledging the conflict betw een genders, he acknowledges the separate existence o f the w om an. W hen P etrarch and W yatt w rite about a lad y's rejection, they focus not on the w om an, b u t on her effect on them . Illu stratin g this p o in t fu rth e r, Petrarch's Rim e 209 reveals his narcissistic tendencies th a t exclude Laura's present alm ost en tirely: "W ith in m yself I am often am azed a t m yself fo r I s till go and yet have not m oved from the sweet yoke that 1 have shaken o ff in vain m any tim es, bu t the fa rth e r I go from it the closer I c o m e ." i2 The poet chooses to focus on his ow n em otional responses rather than the la d y w ho p u rp o rted ly evokes them . H is am azem ent is reserved no t fo r his m ysterious w ould-be mistress b u t fo r him self, as Thomas G reene notes, "[T ]h e Rim e sparse practically exclude any fem ale presence at a ll. . . . She im pinges on the poetry only in the fo rm of iZquoted in P etrarch's L y ric Poems: The Rim e sparse and O ther Lyrics, trans. and ed. R obert D u rlin g (Cam bridge: H arvard LFP, 1976). The orig inal Ita lia n stanza reads: M eco d i m e m i m erariglio spesso ch 'i' pur VO sempre, et non son ancor mosso dal bel giogo p iu volte indam o scosso, ma com ' p iu m e n ' allungo et p iu m 'appresso (1 1 . 5-8) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 120 fantasies, not rem ote m em ories, hallucinations and p a r o n o m a s is ." ^ 3 The fact th at the wom an lacks a clearly articulated id en tity makes her less o f an in d iv id u a l and m ore o f an extension o f the speaker. Jane H edley explains: "By m etaphorically transform ing the lover's sighs in to the lady's retinue, Petrarch makes it im possible to keep the one w ho is desired distin ct from the one w ho d e s ire s ." i4 U n like Petrarch's Laura, Donne's mistress does not deny the lover m erely to torm ent him fo r the pleasure o f seeing him suffer. The distin ct identities of the poet and the mistress in Elegy 19 are also indicative of Elizabethan courtship its e lf. C atherine Bates explains: "Partners w ere perceived as tw o rem ote and distanced in d ivid u als betw een w hom com m unication was presented as d iffic u lt and highly pressurized."!5 C o lo n ial Im plications o f th e In te rn a lize d Petrarchan M istress Petrarch's strategy o f subsum ing the mistress (his "opposition") into his ow n experience has considerable parallels to the techniques o f the colonizing courtier. R ather th an refe r to the natives and th eir lands as distin ct from the English (an d thus acknow ledge both native autonom y and England's aggressive ro le), these explorers often seek to efface the differences th at made colonial takeovers ex p lic it. They em phasize the courtesy extended i3G reene, p. 132. !4Jane H ed ley, Pow er in Verse: M etaphor and M etonym y in the Renaissance Lvric (Pennsylvania State UP, 1988), pp. 116-117. !5Catherine Bates, The R hetoric o f C ourtship in E lizabethan Language and L iteratu re (C am bridge U P, 1992), p. 11. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 121 to the natives. For instance, John Cabot instructs his crew to treat the natives w ell: "E very nation is to be considered advisedly, and not to provoke them by any disdain, laughing, contem pt, o r suchlike, bu t to use them w ith p ru d en t circum spection, w ith aU gentleness, and c o u rte s y .T h e m odel tends to be one o f w ooing: " [I]f the person may be m ade d ru n k w ith your beer, o r w ine, you shall know the secrets o f his heart." ^ 7 Cabot's instructions suggest that one can gain m aterial and po litical pow er sim ply by appearing courteous. E lizabethan explorers expend m uch e ffo rt assuring readers of the sim ilarities betw een indigenous people o f the N ew W orld and the English. Ralegh goes to great lengths to show how m uch natives love Elizabeth. H e w rites, " I showed them H er M ajesty's p ictu re w hich they so adm ired and honoured, as it had been easy to have brought them idolatrous th ereof."is Later, how ever, he does acknowledge his o w n position as an artific ia l one: " I d id not in any sort m ake m y desire of go ld know n ." 19 In these instances, Ralegh relies upon tropes o f gentleness to conceal his true am bitions, w hich D avid S purr describes as an attem pt "to dom inate by inclusion and i6"O rdinances fo r the directio n o f the in ten ded voyage to Cathay. .." in Voyages and Discoveries: The P rin cip al N avigations. Voyages. Traffiques and Discoveries of the E nglish N a tio n , ed. Jack Beeching (London: Penguin Books, 1985), p . 58. i7Cabot, p. 58. isR alegh, p. 388. i9Ralegh, p. 405. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 122 dom estication ra th e r than by confrontation w h ich recognizes the independent id e n tity o f the Other."2o Y et, D onne's Elegy 19 does not "dom inate b y inclusion." H e separates the lad y's id e n tity fro m his ow n (and thus the w o u ld -b e colonized from the w o uld-be co lon izer). Lovers in Donne's poems are o ften present, not m erely sad m em ories o f spum ed love. By focusing on seductive persuasion and not the solipsistic effects o f a broken heart, D onne continues to distinguish betw een him self and his lady. In poems lik e "The Flea," she disagrees w ith the speaker; w hether or not she has a voice, she is present. Qona Bell w rites: [W ]h e th e r he professes in d ifferen c e o r canonizes love, D onne is never able to disregard the w om an's p o in t of v ie w . Th e lad y continues to d istu rb an d check and alter the speaker's assum ptions, even w h en he cockily tries to denigrate her p o int o f vie w .21 B arbara E strin explains th at the "fin a l question [W h at needst thou have m ore covering then a man?"] and expectation th at the wom an w ill rep ly are a trib u te to her sexual and lin gu istic agency."22 The d iffic u lty in determ inin g the status o f the mistress stems from the d iffic u lty o f courtship itself, as it "began to be perceived as a shared a c tiv ity . . . subject to a m ilieu 20David S purr, The R hetoric o f E m pire: C olo nial Discourse in Tourna lism . T ra v e l W ritin g , and Im p e ria l A d m in is tra tio n (Durham : D uke U P, 1993), p. 32. 21 Bona B ell, "The Role o f the Lady in D onne's Songs and Sonets," Studies in English L ite ra tu re 23 (1983). pp. 116-117. 22Barbara L . Estrin, Laura: U ncovering G ender and Genre in W y a tt. D onne, and M a rv e ll (D urham : D uke U P , 1994), p. 24. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 123 th at was fig tired as external: the c o u rt" 2 3 Bates explains: [W ]ooing was conceived as a rhetorical procedure th at was s tra in e d , to rtu ro u s , and fo rm a lize d . S trateg ies o f persuasion, kn ow in g, testing w ere designed to brid ge an em otional, ep istem o lo g ical, and psychological gap th at had opened up betw een the tw o partners in lo v e .2 4 It is precisely this gap th at characterizes Donne's position as distin ct from the colonizing co urtier. Th e Am biguous N atu re o f C o u rtship A fte r a series o f com m ands to strip her clothing and come to bed, the speaker asks for perm ission: "License m y roving hands." The lady's grant o f perm ission to roving hands is also an agreem ent to submission. As I have sought to dem onstrate in previous chapters, such consent is key to the colonizing courtier technique. N o t to ask w ould be to depict oneself as a cad, an abuser. W ith o u t such an agreem ent, anything taken from the lad y w ould be considered stolen; the p erp etrato r w ould possibly be m ore a rapist than a seducer. H ow ever, even a request does not com pletely clarify the issue because the term s of courtship often e n ta il insincerity. In her study o f the rhetoric o f courtship, C atherine Bates traces the evolution of the term s describing w ooing from "to lad y" to "to co u rt." She argues that the transform ation o f term s suggests the ways in w h ich attem pts at political pow er rely upon 23Bates, p. 11. 24Bates, p. 11. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 124 m etaphors o f love to express d e s ire .2 5 She explains th at such w ooing comes to be seen as a posturing th at often belies one's true designs: "The 'co u rtin g ' described by . . . O oim e [in a Satire] connotes a style o f discourse w hich problem atizes in ten tio n and utterance, sincerity and deception. . . . 'C o u rtin g ' a lady was often understood to m ean deceiving or abusing her."26 Joan K elly- G adol argues th at the co u rtly love m odel portrayed in m edieval lite ra tu re offers more po ten tial fo r fem ale agency than the courtier m odel established in Renaissance courtesy books: In a stru ctu re d h ierarch y of superior and in fe rio r, she seems to be served by the courtier. But this lo ve theory really m ade her serve— and stand as a sym bol o f how the relation o f do m ination m ay be reversed, so th at the prince could be m ade to serve the interests of the courtier.27 Claim s of the lady's higher position and her ab ility to govern the loveris choices become rath er dubious in lig h t o f this approach. As K elly-G adol w rites, "The courtier gives obeisance, but only to a reality o f his ow n m a k in g ." 2 8 As a result, the w om an he woos is p articu larly vulnerable to 25Por related discussion, see m y chapters on Ralegh and Spenser. 26Bates, p. 10. For a discussion of Dorme in a court context, see A rth u r M a rio tti, Tohn Donne. Coterie Poet (M adison: U of W isconsin P, 1986). 27Joan K elly-G ad o l, "D id W om en H ave A Renaissance?" Becoming V isib le: W om en in European H isto ry, ed. Renate B ridenthal and C lau d ia Koonz (Boston: H oughton M ifflin , 1977), p. 159. 2«K elly-G adol, p . 158. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 125 ex p lo itatio n . Paradoxically, the lady o f this poem stands as both the reason fo r and the goal o f the conquest In tra d itio n al rom ances, a knight m ight em bark on a quest fo r the sake o f a w om an, such as U n a and Irena in The Faerie O ueene. K elly-G ad ol w rites th at such co urtly lo ve "gave wom en lovers, peers ra th e r th an m a s te rs ."2 9 She fu rth er explains, 'T t attrib u te[d ] an essential freedom to the relatio n between lovers. Hence, it m etaphorically extended the social relatio n o f vassalage to the love re la tio n s h ip ." 3 0 The lover's request fo r license norm ally suggests a relationship in w h ich the lady does have agency. H ow ever, the fact th at the license to be g iven w ill grant the lo ver po w er over the lad y's body com plicates the issue considerably. This problem atic p o rtra yal o f the lady's pow er to consent stems from the fact that she is also the goal o f the quest. She gives the lover leave to m ake her his kingdom and discover her. The perm ission she is capable o f g ran tin g results in im m ediate success fo r the questing lover or kn ight. W ith in the fram ew ork o f the poem , th e lad y seems only capable o f acquiescence. "License m y roving hands" becomes another in a series o f com m ands. Achsah G uibbory explains, "Donne transfers pow er from the w om an, desired and praised, to the m an w ho hopes 29Kelly-G adol, p. 146. 30Kelly-G adol, p. 141. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 126 to p o s s e s s her."3i In E n g la n d , E liz a b e th h e ld th e p o w e r to g r a n t p e r m is s io n t o e x p lo r e a n d c la im la n d n o t u n d e r th e r u le o f o th e r C h r is tia n p r in c e s . D o n n e 's in c lu s io n o f s u c h p h r a sin g id e n tif ie s h is la d y w ith th e q u e e n w h o g a v e lic e n s e to w o u ld -b e d is c o v e r e r s . T h e w o r d " lic e n se " e v o k e s th e in te r s e c t io n o f lib e r tin e a n d c o lo n ia l c o n te x ts th a t th e p o e m in v e s t ig a te s . T h e r o le o f m o n a r c h a n d th e w o u ld -b e c o lo n y b e c o m e c o lla p s e d in to th e f ig u r e o f th e m is tr e s s . G u ib b o r y n o te s: " [T ]h e m o m e n t s h e g iv e s th is lic e n s e s h e lo s e s h e r s o v e r e ig n ty ." 3 2 S h e a lso v ie w s th e c o m p a r is o n a s c r itiq u e ; th e p o e m " b e tr a y s a d is c o m fo r t w it h (in d e e d , a r e je c tio n o f) th e p o litic a l s tr u c tu r e h e a d e d b y a f e m a le m o n a rch ." 3 3 S u c h a c o n f la t io n c e r ta in ly d e p a r ts fr o m e a r lie r lo v e p o e tr y w r itte n to th e V ir g in Q u e e n .3 4 R a th e r th a n p r a is e in n o c e n c e , th e 3iAchsah G uibbory, "'O h , le t mee not serve so': The P olitics o f Love in Donne's Elegies" in C ritic a l Essavs on lohn D onne, ed. A rth u r F. M a ro tti (N ew York: G .K . H a ll & C o., 1994), p. 26. 32Guibbory, p. 26. 33Guibbory, p. 25. 34Compare Donne's suggestive p ortrayal to the obsequious "S ir W alter Ralegh to the Q ueen" as quoted in English S ixteen th -C en tu ry Verse, ed. Richard Sylvester, (N e w York: W . W . N orto n, 1984): ...if m y Plaints serve not to prove The Conquest of yo u r Beauty, It comes not from D efect o f Love, But from Excesse o f du ety For know ing th at 1 sue to serve A Saint o f such P erfection, As a ll desire, b u t none deserve. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 127 speaker o f Elegy 19 celebrates his mistress's experience. The reversed m etaphor in this poem suggests a historical sh ift in both relations between the crow n and the poet and the process of m arking boundaries. Just as the colonizer claim s possession and control o f the te rrito ry is a form o f love and o b ligatio n to the natives, the lo ver here deem s his ow n sexual rew ards as a type o f "service" to his lady. E arlier lines explain that her body includes a "F air fa ire r w o rld " than "heavens Zone." She is his "m ine o f precious stones" and his "em perie." The m istress becomes a new continent, one more accessible than the N ew W orld. Consum m ation o f a p riva te relationship substitutes fo r public conquests, lik e those beyond the grasp of English explorers. Donne im bues the bedroom w ith the consequences of global proportions. K im H a ll explains that the "lite ra l w ealth is rejected for the m etam orphic w ealth o f the sonnet m is tre s s ."3 5 Such sentim ent echoes the lines that end D onne's "The G ood-M orrow ": Let sea discoverers to new w orlds have gone. Let maps to o th er, w orlds on w orlds have showne. Let us possesse one w o rld , each hath one, and is one. ( 1 1 . 12-14) A place in her A ffection ( 1 1 . 11-18) 35Kim H a ll, Things o f Darkness: Economies o f Race and G ender in E arly M odem England. (Ithaca: C ornell U P, 1995), p. 82. H a ll's rem arks refer to on the colonial theme o f Spenser's "A m o retti 15." Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 128 Critical Responses E legy 19 clearly s u g g e s ts a ran ge o f critical r e a c tio n s, a s G u ib b o ry n o tes "the o th er s id e o f c o m p lim e n t, a d m ira tio n , a n d r e v e r e n c e is th e d e sir e to p o s s e s s and th u s m a ster th e c o lo n iz e d w om an."36 S u c h r e m a r k s e n c a p su la te th e rich layers p r e se n t in m u c h o f D o n n e 's w o r k . D o e s th e p o e m ex p ress a d m ira tio n or d e g r a d a tio n o f th e m istress? A n th o n y L o w d e lin e a te s the e x tr e m es o f critical r e sp o n se: "[I]t is p o ssib le, b y le a v in g o u t o n e p a rt o f the e le g y o r an oth er, to a r g u e e ith e r th a t D o n n e is a se x is t o r a p io n e e r o f m u tu a l lo v in g . H e is both."37 A p p r o a c h in g the p o e m w it h c o lo n ia l c o n te x ts o n ly a d d s to the p ro b lem . T e s tify in g to th e attraction s u c h c o m p le x ity h o ld s for critics, W illiam K errigan r e m a r k s th a t " ex p lica tin g th e p s y c h o p o litic a l su b te x t o f E le g y 19 h as b e c o m e a m in o r co n tem p o ra ry genre."38 A s w ith m o st o f D o r m e 's p o e try , the fig u re o f th e la d y s e r v e s as the fo c u s o f critical d e b a te . S u c h a m b ig u ity a b o u t D o im e 's u ltim a te m e ssa g e s te m s from th e q u e s tio n o f th e w o m a n 's a g e n c y . D o e s s h e h a v e a vo ice? D o e s sh e (co u ld sh e) refu se ? Is sh e m erely a n e c e ssa r y p a w n in th e p o et's d e m o n str a tio n o f h is o w n p r o w e s s ? D o e s sh e h a v e a r e a l p r e s e n c e in the 36G uibbory, p. 26. 37A n th on y L o w , T h e R e in v e n tio n o f L ove: P o e tr v . p o litic s a n d cu ltu re fro m S id n e y to M ilto n (C am b rid ge U P , 1993), p 39. 38VVilliam K e r r ig a n , " S e v e n te e n th -C e n tu r y S tu d ie s" in R ed ra w in g th e B o u n d a r ie s: T h e T ra n sfo r m a tio n o f E n g lis h a n d A m erica n L iterary S tu d ie s , e d . S te p h e n G re e n b la tt a n d G ile s G u im (N e w York: M o d e m L a n g u a g e A sso c ia tio n o f A m e r ic a , 1992), p . 69. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 129 poem or an insubstantial one, as the ladies described by P etrarch an d W yatt do? C entral to these questions is the lo ver's request fo r "license" fo r his eager h an d s.39 in this regard, the la d y in itia lly suggests the fig u re o f the ru le r; the lo ver recognizes, at least in itia lly , the pow er of a w om an to refuse his advances. Patrick C ru ttw e ll claim s: [Dorm e] was no t in trig u e d . . . by the new p o lities w h ich the 'savages' o f th e A m ericas had revealed to Europe; he was interested in th e N e w W o rld solely as a rich source o f im agery and conceit— as a storehouse o f new m etaphors for lust and love.^ o H ow ever, the poet's suggestive reference to his m istress as "M y Am erica" offers interesting readings precisely in lig h t o f his in vo lvem en t in the colonial effo rt. In a serm on, Donne describes the V irg in ia C om pany its elf in terms o f a body. H e asks G od to: Looke gratio u sly, and looke p o w erfu lly upon this b o d y, w hich thou hast bene now some yeares in b u ild in g and com pacting to g e th er, th is P lan tatio n , Looke g ra tio u s ly upon the H ead o f th is B ody, o u r Soveraigne . . . Looke gratiously upon them , w ho are the braine o f this bo dy, those w ho by his p o w er, counseU and advise, and assist in the G overnm ent th ereo f . . . Looke gratiously upon them 39Hedley notes "D orm e's poetry is thoroughly m etonym ic in its orientation; he reacted against the Elizabethan poets' co llective endorsement o f the po etic fu nction o f language and reasserted the im portance o f the m essage-to-context poetic fim ctio n ," p. 28. 40Patrick C ru ttw e ll, "The Love Poetry o f John D onne: Pedantique W eedes o r Fresh Invention?" M etaphysical P oetry, ed. M alcolm B radbury an d D a v id Palm er (Bloom ington: In d ia n a U P , 1971), p. 35. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 130 w ho are as Eyes o f this Body, those o f the C lergy . . . Blesse them w ho are the Feete of this body, w ho goe th ith er, and the H ands o f this body, w ho labour th ere, and them who are the heart o f this bodie, a ll that are h e a rtily affected, and declare a ctu a lly th a t heartienesse to th is action , blesse them a ll w ith a ch erre fu ll dispo sitio n to th at, and bless them fo r that disposition. ( 1 1 . 614-630)41 In "The Poetics o f Discovery: A Reading o f D onne's 'E legy 19,'" Thomas G reene view s the poem as a celebration o f both sexual and p o litical conquest: These lines breathe triu m p h an t im p e ria lis m , though it w o u ld be reductive to restrict it to lite ra l conquest o f the N ew W o rld . The yearning seems to be fo r an experience o f ab so lute possession, a m eta p h o ric d o m in io n and w e a lth w h ich the language fa ils fu rth e r to specify but w hich, in these sonorous exclam ations, attracts a bursting energy o f praise.42 H o w ever, H ester calls it "a radical critique o f the English adventure in V ir g in ia ." 4 3 R .V . Young reads this elegy as an attem p t to expose the hypocrisy o f the E lizabethan N ew W o rld enterprise and argues th at such lines im ply a critiq u e o f these experiences: John D onne, w ith his Recusant backg ro un d, w ith his darin g Spanish m otto on a yo u th fu l p o rtra it, could only have resented th is m eretricious lite ra ry celeb ratio n of England's ostentatiously honorable in ten tion s to w ard the 4 1 A ll citations to Donne's serm on re fe r to "A Sermon Preached to the H onourable Com pany of the V irg in ia n P lantation 13 N ovem ber 1622. By John Donne Deane of St. Pauls, London" in The Sermons o f Tohn D onne V o l IV , ed. George R. P otter and E velyn Simpson (Berkeley: U niversity o f C alifornia Press, 1959). 42Thomas G reene, "The Poetics o f D iscovery: A Reading of Donne's 'E legy 19,'" Y ale Tournai o f C riticism vo l 2 no 2 (1989), p. 139. 43Hester, p. 50. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 131 N ew W o rld . To be sure, the Spamsh could be regarded as exploiters; b u t w ere the aims o f R alegh and G ilb e rt really any d ifferen t? . . . Instead o f a rh eto rical re fu ta tio n o f im p erialist proposals, Donne dism antles the m etaphorical s tru c tu re o f v a rio u s lite ra ry celeb ratio n s o f E n g lish explorers and rew rites them as cynically ero tic poems of unbridled d e s ire .4 4 Attem pts to read the elegy by im buing Donne w ith a post-colonial sensibility are m isguided. Historical Context: A R esponse to the Critics Reading Donne as a critic o f colonization w ith such tw entieth-century values is possible only i f one ignores the social and biographical context o f Donne's w ork. C olonial investm ents provided m any m en w ith exactly the sort of finan cial security Dorm e sought m ost o f his life .4 5 As a youth, he accompanied the 1596 exped itio n to C adiz. H e tried unsuccessfully to become secretary o f the V irg in ia C olony in 1609. "New es is none at a ll bu t th at John D un seekes to be preferred to be secretarie o f V irg in ia " w rites C ham berlain to 44R.V. Young, "'O m y Am erica, m y n ew -fo un d-lan d': Pornography and Im p e ria l Politics in D oim e's Elegies." South C entral R ev iew vo l 4, no 2 (Sum m er 1987): 36-37. 45Por a d e tailed study of such N e w W o rld investm ents, see Theodore K. Rabb, Enterprise and Em pire: M erchant and G entry Investm ent in the Expansion of England 1575-1630 (Cam bridge: H arvard U P, 1967). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 132 E h id le y .4 6 In 1622, he was m ade a m em ber o f the V irg in ia C o m p a n y ^7 In 1623, he attended five meetings o f the c o iin d l^ s As a clergym an, he gives the fam ous N ovem ber 1622 serm on on the V irg in ia c o l o n y .49 O f course, Donne's repeated involvem ent and personal fa ilu re to p ro fit from N ew W orld exploration does not preclude his a b ility to critiq u e England's colonial project. H ow ever, such critiques w ould be in fo rm ed by an early m odem , not post m odern, eth ical firam ework. As I have argued throughout, co lo n izatio n its e lf was rarely depicted in term s o f such m oral consequences. In fa c t, Donne claim ed in the serm on th at English expansion could be view ed as the fu lfillm e n t of a religious o bligation to dissem inate the w ord o f G od and assist the vulnerable N ew W o rld natives. Dorme bases the sermon on Acts 1.8, w h ich stresses the duty to witness one's 46A . C . Bald, Tohn D oim e. A L ife (N ew York: O xford UP, 1970), p. 162. Donne's failure to receive the post was som ewhat fortunate. The party to V irg in ia shipw recked in B erm uda, the account o f w hich helped inspire Shakespeare's Tem p est. 47Bald, p. 162. 48Bald, p. 541. 49Louis B. W right notes th at S ir E d w in Sandys, treasurer of the com pany, requested the serm on "to help counteract the effect o f news of the massacre of V irg in ia settlers b y the Indians on 22 M arch" in T h e Elizabethans' Am erica: A C o llectio n o f E arlv Reports by Englishm en on the N e w W orld, ed. Louis B. W rig h t (Cam bridge: H arvard UP, 1965), p 14. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 133 fa ith to others.50 In the fo llow ing passage, he asks m em bers o f the company to m easure th e ir success, not in fin an cial, bu t s p iritu a l rew ards: W hom lib e rty draw es to goe, o r present p ro fit draw es to ad ven tu re, are not yet in the rig h t w ay. O , if yo u could onle brin g a Catéchism e to be as good w are am ongst them as a bugle, as a kn ife, as a hatchet: O , if you w o u ld be as read y to h earken at the retu m e o f a S hip, h o w m any Indians w ere converted to C h rist Jesus, as w h at Trees, or druggs, o r Dyes th at Ship had brought, then yo u w ere in yo u r rig h t w ay, and not till then; L ib ertie and Abundance, are C haracters o f kingdom es, and a kingdom e is excluded in the Text; The Apostles w ere not to looke fo r it, in th eir em ploym ent, nor you in this your P lan tation. (11. 151-160) W hile such w ords seem fa r from the claim s m ade in Elegy 19, they echo the earliest ju stification s fo r colonization. English explorers o ften fram e their quests fo r w ealth as opportunities to convert natives. In his 1585 "Reasons fo r C o lo n izatio n ," R ichard H ak lu yt, him self an ordained m in ister as w ell as an avid collector o f geographic m aterials, begins his lis t w ith tw o religious objectives, w hich he follow s w ith 29 justifications based o n com m ercial benefits.5i H e even rem arks that religious conversion is predicated on the act o f conquest, w ritin g , "To p lan t C hristian relig io n w ith o u t conquest w ill be hard. T ra ffic easily fo llo w eth conquest; conquest is not easy. T raffic w ithout soDonne quotes the passage: "B ut yee shall receive pow er, after th at the H o ly G host is come upon you, and yee sh all be witness unto me both in Jerusalem , and in a ll Judea, and in S am aria, and unto the utterm ost p a rt o f the earth." 5 1 W rig h t pp . 26-27. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 134 conquest seemeth possible and no t uneasy."52 A ll references to D onne's religious am bitions fo r the colonies should be considered in lig h t o f H a k lu y t's b ip artite goals. It is tru e th a t Dorm e mocks the "love" claim ed by colonizers. H e also claims to be blest "in this discovery thee" (1. 30). H ow ever, just as the portrayal o f seduction in E legy 19 cannot easily be considered a critiq ue o f sexual license, the elegy cannot easily be considered an indictm ent o f E nglish expansion. If D oim e tru ly sees colonization as im m oral, he cheapens the act of seduction th ro u g h the com parison. H ow ever, not m any scholars w ould argue th at D onne criticizes sexual flirta tio n in his w o rk. Strong lines: The Technique o f D onne's Elegy "W hat w e call m etaphysical poetry was referred to by contem poraries as 'strong lines,'" w rites H elen G ardner, who notes th at the term was derogatory. 5 3 The notion o f strong lines also suggests the d istin ct categories Donne uses to describe (and acknow ledge the existence o f) gender and colonial relations. Rather than efface differences, D onne seeks to explore 52W right, p. 31. 53Helen G ardner, "The M etaphysical Poets," S eve n te en th C entury English Poetry: M o d em Essays in C riticism . R evised E d itio n , ed. W illiam R. Keast (London: O xford U P, 1971), 33. G ard n er quotes Q uarles, " I have not affected to set they understanding on the Rack, by the tyraim y o f strong lin es, w hich (as they fabulously re p o rt o f C hina dishes) are m ade fo r the th ird G eneration to m ake use o f and are the m ere itch of w it; under the colour of w hich, m any have ventu red . . . to w rite non-sense.," p. 33. (emphasis G ardner's) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 135 th e m . H e d o e s n o t p r e te n d th a t th e sp ea k er's in te r e sts a lw a y s c o in c id e w ith th e m istress's.54 The act o f m aking "strong lines" also echoes the distinctions made clear in maps, a frequent trop e fo r Dorme in poems lik e "A V alediction o f w eeping." In the second stanza o f the poem. Dorme com pares the tears o f the mistress to a globe: On a round ball A w orkem an th at h ath copies by, can lay An Europe, A friq u e , and an Asia, And quickly m ake th a t, w hich was nothing. A ll, So doth each teare. W hich thee do th w eare, A globe, yea w o rld b y th at impression grow (11.10-16) The comparison betw een teardrops and an im age o f the w o rld is complex; both maps and Dorm e's lyrics o ffe r concise expressions o f com plex relationships.55 Stallybrass argues that m apping its e lf is "an instrum ent in 54Guibbory acknow ledges Dorme's recognition o f sexual difference, but she view s such gender stratificatio n p rim a rily as a defensive m ove: "D orm e's poems em body strong anxiety between the sexes— an anxiety understandable in a culture in w hich those categories, both physiological and social, could not longer be assumed to be fixed or stable," p. 30. 55For a discussion o f the relation betw een visual representation and poetic conceits, see G raham Roebuck, "D onne's V isu al Im agination and Com passes," Tohn Dorm e Tournai V o l. 8 Nos. 1 and 2 (1989). V icto r M organ notes: "In the w orks o f lite ra ry m en, no sharp dem arcation w as m ade betw een this class o f signs and those to be found in the parallels o f histo ry, the m etaphors o f language, and the visual em blem ata so p o p u lar in the period," quoted in Roebuck, 47. Also see Stanton J. L ind en, "Compasses and C artography: Dorme's A Valediction: fo rb id d in g M o urning," Tohn Dorm e Tournai V ol. 3 N o. 1 (1984). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 136 the charting o f ideological, as w e ll as geographical b o u n d a r ie s ." 5 6 In his famous "E legy upon the D eath o f the D ean o f P aul's, D r. John Donne," Thomas C arew eulogizes the poet w ith references to lines o f another kind: "Thou hast. .. opened us a m ine / O f rich and pregnant fancy, draw ne a lin e o f m asculine expression" ( 1 1 . 36-38).57 These w ords nicely encapsulate issues w ith great appeal fo r critics. The juxtaposition o f concepts, such as "m asculine" and "pregnant" suggests Donne's challenges to the sexual dynam ics w hich com m only established poetic roles o f m ale as dom inant and fem ale as silent and in visib le. C arew 's claim , p a rtic u la rly references to open m ines of "pregnant fancy," invokes the intersection o f gender and colonial issues present in Donne's poetry. Elegy 18: M apping the M istress To support the read ing o f Elegy 19,1 shall investigate another text. Elegy 18. In the poem , the speaker advises a w ould-be lo v e r on how to woo through allegorizing the conquest o f a w om an's body as a colonizing venture on the sea: 56Stallybrass, p. 130. S T Poetry o f the English Renaissance 1509-1660. ed. J. W illiam Hebei and H o yt H . H udson (N ew York: F.S. C rofts & C o., 1934) For detailed discussions o f this elegy, see M ichael P. P arker, "Diam ond's D u s t C arew , K ing , and the Legacy o f D onne," in T h e Eagle and the Dove: Reassessing Tohn Dorm e, éd. C laude J. Sum m ers and Ted-Larry Pebw orth, Essays in Seventeenth-C entury L ite ra tu re I (Colum bia: U niversity o f M issou ri Press, 1986) and Sidney G o ttlie b , "Elegies U pon the A uthor: D efin in g , D efending, and S urviving D onne, " Tohn Donne Tournai V o l. 2 N o. 2 (1983). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 137 W ho ever loves, if he do not propose The rig h t tru e end o f love, he's one th at goes To sea fo r no th ing b u t to m ake him sick (11.1-3) Donne begins w ith the connection betw een rom antic conquests and N ew W orld adventures. T h e "rig h t true end" o f love is sex. N o t to "conquer" one's mistress is to undertake an expensive and arduous journey to be rew arded w ith on ly p ain . The sweeping scope o f a rom antic quest has been reduced to the im m ediacy o f the lover's body. The rew ards are sm aller— no new continents— b u t they are as tangible as a kiss: U pon the Islands fortunate w e fa ll. N o t faynte C anaries, but A m brosiall, H e r sw elling lips; To w hich w hen w ee are come. W e anchor th ere, and think our selves at hom e. For they seem all: there Syrens songs, and there W ise D elp h ic k O racles do fill the ear; There in a C reek w here chosen pearls do sw ell. The R hem ora h er cleaving tongue d o th d w e ll. ( 1 1 . 50-58) In this elegy, the speéiker urges his com panion to avoid any rom antic tem ptations not d ire c tly lin ked w ith the sexual consum m ation of courtship. The m istress's lip s take the role of the fem in ine th reat to the quest. ("We . .. th in k our selves a t hom e / For they seem a ll ") H e r w ords are sirens' songs; her m outh, a creek w ith pearls. H er tongue is fig u red as a rem ora, a slender fish whose dorsal fin acts as a large sucker th at allow s it to attach itself to other fish and m arine vessels. Such fish w ere believed to im pede a ship's progress to its destin ation. Y et, as in Elegy 19, the m istress is also the object of the quest. P aradoxically, she is both the th reat to and the fu lfillm en t of the journey. A g ain D onne reveals tacit m etaphors upon w h ich colonial relations Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 138 had been founded. By m aking the w om an into land, he exposes its artifice. As the speaker and his com panion (the w ould-be lover in need o f advice) sail do w n the body o f the w o uld-be m istress, they both re-enact colonial journeys and establish the distin ct borders that S ir W alter Ralegh and other explorers avo id : ...y et thine eye Some Island moles m ay scattered there descry; A nd Sailing tow ards her In d ia, in that w ay Shall a t her fa ir A tla n tic k N a v e ll stay; Though thence the C u rre n t be thy P ilot m ade. Yet ere thou be w here thou w ouldst be em bay'd. Thou shalt upon another Forest set. W here m any S hipw rack, and no fu rther get. W hen thou a rt th ere, consider w hat this chace M ispent by thy begining at the face ( 1 1 . 62-71) Th e progress o f love (the su b title o f this elegy) continues past the "island m oles" but stops short o f sexual fulfillm ent ("w here thou w ouldst be em bay'd"). The m istress has shipw recked m any pilots w ho attem pted to sail past her "forest." The erro r, according to the speaker, was "beginning at the face," instead o f the feet; he argues th at follow ing the m ore pragm atic approach w ill yield the w om an's "second purse" more easily. The baw dy pun conflates sexual and m aterial rew ards, just as in Elegy 19. Donne's break w ith courteous colonizing is again evident. T he C hallenge o f P lacing D on ne in the C olonizing Courtier Tradition The rom ance in D onne's w o rk, p articu larly Songs and Sonets and Elegies, in itia lly seems to d iffe r g reatly from the romance discussed in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 139 previous chapters. Sidney, Ralegh, and Spenser rely upon conventions o f the form : episodic, uncontained, unbounded adventures; in th e ir w o rk, romance often consists o f a pu blic declaration of love to achieve po litical power both w ith in the poems and the society in w hich they circulated. H edley defines this type o f ch ivalric romance: "In this k in d o f epic, whose ideological project is to ju stify dœ potism , heroic action is sublim ated as courtship o r courtiership and the narrative line, w ith its burden o f heroic exploit, is a circle th at returns to its point of o r ig in ." 5 8 Donne, how ever, does not w rite romances w ith proportions as am bitious as The Faerie O ueene or Arcadia. Upon firs t glance, the b rief lyrics o f Donne seem to have little in com m on w ith the endless quest cycles of such longer works. In The M onarch o f W it. J. B. Leishm an even proclaim s that Donne "w rote as though Spenser never lived: Spenser's natio nal and patriotic strain, his P latonic idealism , his elaborate description, his am plification and ornam entation— a ll these fin d no place in [his] v e rs e ." 5 9 A lthough he circulated m anuscripts in search o f patronage, Donne did not take on the role o f an E lizabethan courtier during the "In d ia n summer of 58Hedley, p. 24. 59J. B. Leishm an, The M onarch o f W it: A n A n a lytic al and C om parative S tudy o f the Poetry of Tohn Donne (N ew York: H arper & Row, 1966), p. 19. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 140 c h iv a lr y ."60 in fact, D onne calls courts "pictures o f vice" in the Satires.6i Follow ing critic al tra d itio n suggested by Ben Jonson's claim th at "Donne w ro te a ll his best pieces ere he was 25 years old" w ill date his Songs and Sonets and Elegies to this p e rio d , b u t not easily explain his place w ith in it. He was bom tw o decades a fte r Ralegh and Spenser. H is yo u th and staunch C atholic heritage alienates him fu rth e r from the co u rtly fantasies o f E lizabethan ro m a n c e s .6 2 N o t lik e ly to be referred to as "chivalrous," he exp licitly criticizes such tales in his Paradoxes and Problem s: "before this Age o f w itt... T h eir was no w ay know ne to w yn a Ladye bu t by T y ltin g e, Tum yge, and rydinge through F o rre s ts .6 3 Indeed, the rom ance in D onne's poems tends to focus on rew ards th at are q u ite tangible. 60A rth u r B. Ferguson, The Indian Sum m er o f E nglish C h ivalry: Studies in the D ecline and Transform ation o f C h iv a lric Idealism (D uke UP, 1960). 6iquoted in Bates, p . 14. 62Donne's connection to Catholicism ran q u ite deep. H is m other, E lizabeth H eyw oo d , was the great-niece o f S ir Thom as M ore. H is younger bro ther d ied o f the plague w h ile im prisoned fo r harboring a sem inary priest. Flis uncle Jasper H eyw ood was im prisoned and exiled fo r conducting underground Jesuit activities. His great uncle Thomas H eyw ood w as executed for practicing his fa ith . John C arey notes the significance re lig io n played in Donne's life : "The firs t thing to rem em ber about D onne is th at he was a C atholic; the second, th at he betrayed his Faith," p . 15. For a detailed account o f the influence religion had in D onne's life , see Carey's Tohn Donnp: T.ife. M in d and A rt (N ew York: O xfo rd , 1981). 63Donne, Paradoxes and Problems, ed. H elen Peters (O xford: Clarendon Press, 1980), p. 64. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 141 Dorme refers to h im self as a m em ber o f the V irg in ia C om pany. H e w rites; '^ y your favours, I had some place amongst you, before: b u t I am not an A dventurer; if not to V irg in ia , ye t fo r V irg in ia; fo r, every m an, th at P rints, A dventures." W h ile he acknow ledges that he is not a tru e colonizer, he expresses a real desire to be one. D oim e as the End o f the Line Part o f Donne's po sition in the colonizing courtier tr^'ectory can be explained in term s o f his age. The careers o f Ralegh, Spenser, and Sidney peaked du ring the "In d ia n sum m er o f ch ivalry" in the fin a l decades o f Elizabeth's reign. D espite th e ir collective enthusiasm fo r E nglish expansion in the Mew W orld, they saw the repeated failures o f fellow citizen s to establish perm anent settlem ents. In response, they chose to represent such failures in term s o f rom ance, circu lar poetry that could explain the loss as a sm all part o f a larger cycle, w hich prom ised great victory in the fu tu re . Yet, fo r various reasons in clud in g his yo u th and religious o rien tatio n , D onne did no t participate in the celebration o f the colonizing courtier. Donne also experienced defeat; he liv e d in poverty m ost o f his ad u lt life and thus was unable to invest in E lizabethan colonial schemes. E lizabeth d ied in 1603, tw o years a fte r Donne's m arriage to Anne M oore, tra d itio n a lly view ed as the po int at w h ich D oim e ceased to make baw dy references in w orks such as the Elegies and Songs and Sonets. Elizabeth's d eath and James ascension changed the nature o f the court. As the 1618 execution o f Ralegh Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 142 affirm s, co urtly poetry ceased to be p o litic ally viable in the w ay it had been under E lizabeth. A . J. Sm ith explains that by the tim e Charles was on the throne, "[S]exual love no longer offered a paradigm o f the issues that confronted these m en"64 Thus, the colonizing co urtier trope, w ith its tendency to problem atize sincerity, could be easily exposed as artifice once it lost its p o litic a l usefulness .65 64A. J. Sm ith, "The Failure o f Love: Love Lyrics after Donne," in M etaphysical Poetry, ed. M alcolm B radbury and D avid Palm er (Bloom ington: Indiana U P, 1970), p. 52. 65Instead o f presenting the p o litical-p u b lic relationship in term s o f lo ve, Donne substitutes the lo ver as the w o rld , as W illia m Empson explains: "[I]nstead of d ignifyin g the in d iv id u a l by com parison to the public in stitu tio n , he treats the in stitu tio n as on ly a p a llid im itatio n of the in d iv id u a l. A ll the im aginative structures w hich m en have b u ilt to control them selves are only derived from these sim ple intim ate basic relations, and the apparently fantastic com plim ent is no more than b ru ta l fact." W illia m Empson, Essay on Renaissance Literature, V olum e One: Donne and the N ew Philosophy, ed. John H affenden (C am bridge U P, 1995), p . 86. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 143 Epilogue: From Quest to Conquest The end o f the sixteenth century m arks the end of the colonizing co u rtier trajectory fo r m any reasons. The death o f the queen in 1603 closes the E lizabethan golden age during which public id en tity w as created out of chivakic pageantry. W ith the fem ale m onarch gone, the paradigm o f courtly love ceased to o ffe r am bitious young m en a means to p o litical pow er; James 1 , her successor, com m anded fa r less respect and adm iration . The In d ian Summer o f C h ivalry an d m any o f its participants d id not survive the transform ation. By 1600, Sidney had d ie d o f an infected battle w o uld in flic te d at Zutphen, and Spenser, whose house had been burned dow n by Irish rioters, is said to have died hungry in the streets o f London. W alter Ralegh, the quintessential E lizabethan courtier once despised fo r his p o w erfu l political connections, returned from yet another failed colonial expedition to be beheaded fo r treason in 1618. E arlier know n as a rake and a great v is ito r o f ladies, John Donne liv ed in poverty before accepting a clergy position in 1615. A fte r his w ife's death, he fo llow ed a life o f m editation u n til his ow n death in 1631. T h e circumstances surrounding the deaths o f these w riters w ere consistent w ith th eir lives; th eir artistic production was continually characterized by personal and fin an cial failure. The new century brought England a new role in global politics. P ilgrim s founded Jam estown, the firs t perm anent settlem ent in the N ew W o rld in 1608. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 144 Puritans fo llo w ed soon after, settling the Massachusetts Bay C olony in 1620. In A m erica, these colonists sought a N ew Jerusalem , not a faerie w o rld . They relied upon the typology of the Bible, not the tropes o f chivaM c rom ance, to describe th eir experiences. T h eir depictions o f the n a tive tribes w ere less charitable than m any accounts collected by H aklu yt. A fte r a ll, the colony already had fin an cial backing and w illin g participants. M ore im p o rta n tly , they needed to ju s tify th e ir seizure o f land and resources belonging to the local "savages." The maps that had once offered discouragem ent to w ould-be E lizabethan explorers now showed a N ew W o rld w ith English settlem ents. Boundaries w ere established; the land was m easured an d charted. As victors in th e ir colonial efiorts, the English no longer needed the com forts ch ivalric rom ance offers to those w ho fa il. They could let the once-cyclical n a rra tiv e o f th eir attem pts a t colonization conclude because the English had gotten the ending they w anted: a perm anent settlem ent. W ith the 1604 publication o f D on Q uixote, ch iva lric rom ance gradually became seen as quaint and even childish. W h ile a later w o rk lik e D ryden 's In d ia n E m peror m ight still echo colonizing co u rtier themes, characters lik e Shakespeare's C alib an dem onstrate a m uch d iffe re n t dynam ic between E ngland and the N ew W o rld than existed when Elizabethans had not yet know n colonial success. C h iv a lric rom ance gave the English an op p o rtu n ity to experience the Am ericas as p a rt o f th e ir past, but the form lost its usefulness in the seventeenth century, as the N ew W orld came to be seen as England's fu tu re. 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Creator Sanders, Laura Emily (author)

Core Title Between quest and conquest: Elizabethan romances of Ireland and the New World

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program English

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag literature, English,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor [illegible] (committee chair), [illegible] (committee member), Braudy, Leo (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c17-395231

Unique identifier UC11350811

Identifier 9919102.pdf (filename),usctheses-c17-395231 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 9919102.pdf

Dmrecord 395231

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Sanders, Laura Emily

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA