The Dowbt Of Future Foes Exile My Present Joye By Queen Elizabeth Analysis

It is clear that there is a prominent struggle in the balance of power between the monarch and the subject that is represented in the two early modern texts Edward II by the playwright Christopher Marlowe and the poem The dowbt of future foes exiles my present joye by Queen Elizabeth. The monarch of each text is losing support from their once loyal followers and subjects by intertwining public responsibility and personal desire. In this essay I will use these texts to demonstrate each monarch’s power struggles as a result of their subjects. I will also use secondary sources of criticism to confirm the points that are made in this essay. Firstly, the poem The dowbt of future foes exile my present joye by Queen Elizabeth will be analysed
This self fashioning has caused an imbalance in the Queen’s power as she is trying to appease her subjects more than bestow her own authority. In the year 1588, Queen Elizabeth delivered a speech known as the Tilbury Speech. In this speech, the Queen states that ‘I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too’ and ‘I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder’. In relation to this speech and the poem The dowbt of future foes exile my present joye, Queen Elizabeth has the power of both a man and a woman combined. However, because she is not a man the belief system from her subjects is gone. In the poem, we see this androgyny that the Queen is portraying in the final few lines. According to Queen Elizabeth in the poem, the subjects ‘shall reap no gayne’(12) from choosing not to support an androgynous monarch. As well as that, the poem confirms the Queen’s masculine persona with the line ‘my rustye sword’(15). According to Paul Salzman in the text Reading Early Modern Women’s Writing, Queen Elizabeth’s poetry ‘formed part of Elizabeth’s self-representation, and as such it was easily seized upon’(Salzman, P 39). Overall, the Queen was fashioning herself for the people. She wanted to be both a
It is also the nobles, especially Mortimer Senior and Mortimer Junior. The nobles see Gaveston as an inappropriate preoccupation for the King which leads to his authority and the balance of power being fragile. His preoccupation with Gaveston has lead to the King think of ‘nothing but Gaveston’ (2.2.7) and ‘still his mind runs on his minion’ (2.2.4). King Edward’s struggle to balance power has lead to the weakening of the army and therefore England is at threat to foreign invasion. In the words of critic David Stymeist in the text the Status, Sodomy, and the Theater in Marlowe's "Edward II", ‘Christopher Marlowe dramatizes the history of the English King’ who is ‘accused of allowing his homoeroticism to take precedence over his political and social obligations’ (P 235). Many critics have claimed that this play is a play of sodomy. However if we look at the Oxford English Dictionary, sodomy is defined as ‘any form of sexual intercourse considered to be unnatural. Now chiefly: anal intercourse’ (OED). There is no evidence in the play that confirms that both King Edward and Gaveston had any form of sexual intimacy. However, critic Mario DiGangi writes in the text Marlowe, Queer Studies and Renaissance Homoeroticism that ‘“Sodomite” meant more than “a man who has sex within another man”. The label also meant that this particular man was treasonous, monstrous,