Renaissance Woman

"...being resolved in the midst and heat of the battle to live and die amongst you all, to lay down for my God and for my kingdom and for my people mine honor and my blood even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too."

I'm sorry, did someone say that women did not have a renaissance? Are we forgetting that Queen Elizabeth was one of England's greatest monarchs? Not held back by the fact that she was a "feeble" woman, Elizabeth ruled the British with a resolution as good, if not better, than her male counterparts. As a women in the sixteenth century she was up against unending criticism from those did not see a member of the weaker sex as fit for such a position of royalty and power. Her speech to the troops, however, is inspiring and shows the fiery spirit she was made of and the determination she was capable of.

After reading her verses to "Wat" Ralegh we see even more of her spirit. Not to be outdone by a man, she haughtily claims that she can withstand the tides of fortune, saying:

"Fortune, I know, sometime doth conquer kings,
And rules and reigns on earth and earthly things,
But never think Fortune can bear the sway
If virtue watch..."

(That's my emphasis on kings...)

Ralegh, who exchanged verses with the Queen and was well acquainted with her spirit, wrote "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd." The nymph, the speaker in the poem, has an attitude simlar to that of "what has love got to do with it?" She replies to each of the shepherd's offerings and shows how they will all pass away in the end. With a somewhat pessimistic view she tells him that material objects are not enough to convince her to love him.

"But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and by thy love."

Just as love will fade with time and a marriage without commitment will not last, the
trappings and trifles that the shepherd have offered to his love will not last and are not enough to tie her heart to him.