> On May 26, 2019, at 1:48 AM, Alain Veylit <al...@musickshandmade.com> wrote: > > The negociations for Elizabeth to marry Francis finally failed in 1582, 15 > years before the First book of songes was published. There is no mention in > "Now o Now" of how ugly Francis was (dwarfish, with severe scars from the > small pox). I don't see how English poets of the time could have skipped over > the opportunity to revile a French suitor to their queen based on his > physical appearance. If the Frog galliard were entitled the Toad galliard, > your theory might hold some water... > > Jokes aside, 15 years is a long time in politics (even in those days), and > the complete absence of satirical content in the lyrics of the song cast a > doubt on that theory in my opinion. > > At the time Dowland published the First book of songs, Queen Elizabeth would > have been 64, a ripe old age beyond any sort of romantic inclination and > possibly touchy if anyone dared harp on it …
Anyone who considered the Queen and her suitor a subject of satire--or indeed much of anything else—would be taking a grave risk. We’re not talking about Stephen Colbert and Donald Trump here. In 1579 a Puritan named John Stubbs wrote "The Discovery of a Gaping Gulf whereunto England is like to be swallowed by another French Marriage, if the Lord forbid not the banns, by letting her Majesty see the sin and punishment thereof,” a pamphlet arguing against the marriage of Elizabeth and Anjou because the 46-year-old queen, too old to bear children, had no need to marry, and the marriage could lead to restoration of Catholicism, which would destroy English liberty, including freedom of speech. He wrote that the marriage would be "an immoral union, an uneven yoking of the clean ox to the unclean ass, a thing forbidden in the law” [i.e., Deuteronomy 22:10] and a "more foul and more gross" union that would incur God’s anger, leaving the English "pressed down with the heavy loins of a worse people and beaten as with scorpions by a more vile nation." Stubbs and the publisher, William Page, were found guilty of "seditious writing", and had their right hands cut off, somewhat undercutting the argument about protecting free speech. Just before the sentence was carried out, with a crowd of people watching, Stubbs said, "Pray for me now [that] my calamity is at hand,” securing for himself a place in the Smartass Hall of Fame. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
