Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Elizabethan Quote of the Day: An Excerpt From "The Faerie Queen"

Today I would like to share with you an excerpt from one of the most famous literary works composed to honor Queen Elizabeth I, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. (Note: some of the contemporary spelling had been retained to preserve the authenticity of the verse)

A picture of Queen Elizabeth receiving foreign ambassadors, by Elizabeth's female court painter Leevina Teerlinc. In my opinion, Teerlinc has an Edward Gorey like style! The practice of painting the walls in the court rooms is sumptuously brought to life in the Helen Mirren HBO miniseries Elizabeth I.
"High above all a cloth of State was spred,
And a rich throne, as bright as sunny day,
On whiche sate most brave embellished
With  royall robes and gorgeous array,
A mayden queene, that shone as Titans ray,
In glistring gold, and peerelesse pretious stones
Yet her bright blazing beautie did assay
To dim the brightnesse of her glorius throne,
As envying her selfe, that too exceeding shone."