“Set in portraiture”: George Gascoigne, Queen Elizabeth, and Adapting the Royal Image
Hamrick, Stephen
Early Modern Literary Studies 11.1 (May, 2005)
Abstract
The essay analyzes the images of Gascoigne and Queen Elizabeth presented in The Noble Arte of Venerie or Hunting and The Tale of Hemetes the Heremyte. In four visual images and their accompanying poetic texts, Gascoigne uses political allegories of hunting with the Queen to position himself within the cult of Elizabeth. Serving yet subtly containing Elizabeth’s power, Gascoigne’s manipulation of a political petrarchan discourse that underwrites the cult communicates both dependence and control. Text and picture construct a figurative and narrative process of Elizabethan service, reward, and critique that provides dual registers of observation and interpretation previously unexamined.
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