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The Mirror of the Worlde
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The Mirror of the Worlde
A translation by Elizabeth Tanfield Cary
Edited and with an introduction by Lesley Peterson
McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca
© McGill-Queen’s University Press 2012 ISBN 978-0-7735-4072-9 Legal deposit fourth quarter 2012 Bibliothèque nationale du Québec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Cary, Elizabeth, Lady, 1585 or 6–1639 The mirror of the worlde : a translation / by Elizabeth Tanfield Cary ; edited and with an introduction by Lesley Peterson. Translation of: L’épitome du théatre du monde d’Abraham Ortelius. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7735-4072-9 1. Cary, Elizabeth, Lady, 1585 or 6–1639. 2. Ortelius, Abraham, 1527–1598. 3. Atlases – Early works to 1800. 4. World maps – Early works to 1800. I . Ortelius, Abraham, 1527–1598 II . Peterson, Lesley, 1957– III . Title.
g1016.c37 2012 912’.1 c2012-903746-x Set in 10/13 Warnock Pro and 11/13 Jenson Pro with Aquiline Book design & typesetting by Garet Markvoort, zijn digital
For the Vicar and Wardens of St John the Baptist Church, Burford, Oxfordshire, and the people of Burford with deep appreciation
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Illustrations xiii
Introduction
Early Encounters with the World: Elizabeth Tanfield and Her Work 3 The Translator’s “Pregnancy of Understanding”: Elizabeth Tanfield’s Style 22 The Translator in the Priory: Influences and Contexts 43
Note on the Text 111
viii
Contents
The Mirror of the Worlde (text and annotations) 117
Appendix A Summary of all French Editions of Ortelius Printed by 1602 225 Appendix B Comparison of the Contents of The Mirror of the Worlde with the Contents of the 1590 Epitome and the 1598 Miroir 227 Appendix C Complete Text of L’Epitome’s Descriptions of “Lucembourg” (34v) and “Haynault” (35v) 233
Works Cited 235
Index 243
Acknowledgments
One of my earliest mentors, Dennis Cooley, taught me that “you can only be a writer in isolation, and you can only be a writer in community.” For teaching me that, for constructing a nurturing and productive writerly community through his own skill and generosity, and for forgiving me after I abandoned CanLit, I am forever grateful. To the community of generous and brilliant people who supported me at different stages of this particular project, I owe more than I can ever hope to repay. Patricia Demers introduced me to Elizabeth Cary’s work and welcomed me to the field of early modern studies; Juliet McMaster introduced me to the joys and rigours of scholarly editing and welcomed me to the field of juvenilia. There could not be two better masters under whom to serve an apprenticeship. I have also been most fortunate to benefit from the formidable expertise and kind support of Peter van der Krogt, Isobel Grundy, Garrett Epp, David Loades, Marta Straznicky, and the late Richard Helgerson, all of whom gave me invaluable feedback and encouragement in crucial early stages of this project. Hélène Cazes, Jayne Archer, Christopher Tabraham, Mary Hill Cole, and Brenda Hosington have answered questions generously and expertly. Keith Lindley kindly double-checked some of my more troublesome translations from le français moyen into English. Christine Alexander, Jeffrey Bibbee, William Gahan, Anna Lott, Nick Mauriello, Peter Midgley, Judith Owens, Leslie Robertson, and Jenifer Sutherland have all helped to keep the scholarly spark alive. Rob Koch knows what writers need. Jonathan Crago at McGill-Queen’s University Press deserves much gratitude for his patience, encouragement, expertise, and professionalism, and Freya Godard’s copy editing has helped make this a better book.
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While they were still in residence at Burford Priory, the Prior and the Benedictine Community there offered me the kind of welcome and assistance that I must always recall with gratitude. The Reverend Richard Coombs and the congregation of St John the Baptist Church, Burford, have been unfailingly gracious and helpful, and there are no words adequate to describe the wonderful Raymond and Joan Moody of Cobb House, Burford, expert historians, dear friends, and so much more. I am grateful to the National Portrait Gallery, London, for being open on Sundays. I have always depended on the kindness of librarians, but Linda Haynes at the Oxford County Records Office; Bruce Barker-Benfield at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford; and Leigh Thompson, Amy Butler, and Sue Nazworth of the University of North Alabama repeatedly went above and beyond the call of duty. Anna Beth Kirk Rose and Kelli Glasgow have been extraordinary research assistants; for their sharp minds, precise ways, dedication, and friendship I am incredibly grateful. Any errors in this volume are entirely my own. Financial assistance for the research and travel essential to a project of this nature has been provided by the Department of English and Film Studies of the University of Alberta, the Killam Foundation, the University of North Alabama College of Arts and Sciences, the Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Provost at UNA , and Mrs Laura M. Harrison, and I deeply appreciate the support for this project in particular and for scholarship in general that these individuals and institutions have shown. For the recognition and support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada I am deeply grateful. My three amazing children, Judith, Liz, and Keith, along with their equally amazing partners, Becky, Kent, and Meaghan, keep me grounded and joyously human. But my deepest gratitude and strongest admiration are due to my husband, Eric, for his patience, his understanding support, his good cooking, and his exemplary dedication to his own projects.
Abbreviations
ET
Elizabeth Tanfield (later Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falkland).
Works Cited All references in the Introduction to the following texts are given parenthetically.
DAF DNB DUF Edward II
EEBO L’Epitome
EHE HCR
Frédéric Godefroy, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue francaise. http://www.lexilogos.com/ francais_dictionnaire_ancien.htm. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com. Louis-Nicolas Bescherelle, Dictionnaire universel de la langue francaise. http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/ Visualiseur?Destination=Gallica&O=NUMM-50453. Elizabeth Cary, The History of the Life, Reign, and Death of Edward II. King of England, and Lord of Ireland. EEBO. Early English Books Online. Univ. of Michigan, Oxford Univ., and ProQuest LLC. http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home. Abraham Ortelius, L’Epitome du Théâtre du Monde d’Abraham Ortelius. All references are to the 1590 edition (BL Shelfmark Maps C.2b.3) unless otherwise specified. Michael Drayton, England’s Heroicall Epistles, 1597. Beryl T. Atkins et al., Harper Collins Robert FrenchEnglish / English-French Dictionary, 4th edition.
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KAN
Abbreviations
Peter van der Krogt, Koeman’s Atlantes Neerlandici. Reference to the description of a particular atlas uses van der Krogt’s bibliographical numbering system; references to other parts of KAN use volume and page number. Life Lucy? Cary, Lady Falkland: Her Life,” in The Tragedy of Mariam The Fair Queen of Jewry, with the Lady Falkland Her Life by One of Her Daughters, ed. Weller and Ferguson, 183–275. LMF Algirdas Julien Greimas and Teresa Mary Keane, Dictionnaire du moyen français. La Renaissance. Mariam Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam, in The Tragedy of Mariam the Fair Queen of Jewry, with the Lady Falkland Her Life by One of Her Daughters, ed. Weller and Ferguson, 61–176. Mirror Elizabeth Tanfield, later Cary, trans. and dedication, The Mirror of the Worlde Translated Out of French into Englishe, Bodleian Library Dep. d. 817. OED Oxford English Dictionary, http://www.oed.com. Poly-Olbion Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, with Illustrations by John Selden, 1612. References to Drayton’s verse are given by title or Song and line number; references to other texts, such as Selden’s Illustrations, are given by page number or folio number. All references are to this edition unless otherwise specified. Reply Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland, trans., Preface, and Dedication, The Reply of the Most Illustrious Cardinall of Perron, to the Answeare of the king of Great Britaine, 1630. Shawe Abraham Ortelius, Ortelius, Epitome of the Theater of the Worlde. London: J[ames] Shawe, 1603?
Figure 1: Title page, from The Mirror of the Worlde, 1r (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Dep. d. 817 by permission of the Vicar and Wardens of St John the Baptist Church, Burford, Oxfordshire)
Figure 2: Dedication to Sir Henry Lee, from The Mirror of the Worlde, 2r (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Dep. d. 817 by permission of the Vicar and Wardens of St John the Baptist Church, Burford, Oxfordshire)
Figure 3: Approbation and Privilege, from L’Epitome (1590), 94v (The British Library Board BL Maps C.2.b.3)
Figure 4: Queen Elizabeth I (“The Ditchley Portrait”) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, c. 1592 (National Portrait Gallery, London)
Figure 5: Frontispiece to [Atlas of the Counties of England and Wales] by Christopher Saxon, 1579 (The British Library Board BL Maps C.3.bb.5)
Figure 6 (facing page, above): “Englande,” from The Mirror of the Worlde, 5v (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Dep. d. 817 by permission of the Vicar and Wardens of St John the Baptist Church, Burford, Oxfordshire) Figure 7 (facing page, below): “Irelande,” from The Mirror of the Worlde, 6v Oxford, Bodleian Library, Dep. d. 817 by permission of the Vicar and Wardens of St John the Baptist Church, Burford, Oxfordshire) Figure 8: “The Countrie of SWETLAND,” from The Mirror of the Worlde, 33v (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Dep. d. 817 by permission of the Vicar and Wardens of St John the Baptist Church, Burford, Oxfordshire)
Figure 9: “Italye,” from The Mirror of the Worlde, 34r (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Dep. d. 817 by permission of the Vicar and Wardens of St John the Baptist Church, Burford, Oxfordshire) Figure 10 (facing page): Frontispiece to Poly-Olbion (1612) (The British Library Board BL Shelfmark C.116.g.2.)
Figure 11: End of mediaeval wall incorporated into fabric of Burford Priory. (Photograph taken and reproduced with permission of Abbot Stuart Burns OSB, then Abbot of Burford)
Figure 12: From The Writing Schoolemaster, John Davies of Hereford, V4r (TypW 605.63.318, Houghton Library, Harvard University)
Figure 13: “Barbaria,” from The Mirror of the Worlde, 53v (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Dep. d. 817 by permission of the Vicar and Wardens of St John the Baptist Church, Burford, Oxfordshire)
The Mirror of the Worlde
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Introduction
1 Early Encounters with the World: 2 Elizabeth Tanfield and Her Work The Mirror of the Worlde is a lengthy work of translation, covering most of fifty-three folios on both sides: a project requiring considerable skill and the persistence to match. It is, moreover, a translation of the texts accompanying the maps in an atlas of the world: a genre that, by the end of the sixteenth century in England, was valued by bureaucrats, landowners, and military strategists. It had also become central to the education of upperclass boys, but was hardly standard reading for a girl. Nevertheless, the first person known to have translated into English the entire set of map descriptions contained within the covers of one map book was Elizabeth Tanfield, not only a girl but one who, as the evidence strongly suggests, undertook this unlikely task before even reaching her teens. Nor does she, in the text of her dedicatory epistle to Sir Henry Lee or elsewhere, express concern over another fact that might seem as improbable as any: her carefully written and beautifully bound work, although designed as a gift for an honoured older relative who was known to hold cartography in high regard, although scrupulously full and complete in one sense at least, contains text only. In other words, in Elizabeth’s Mirror of the Worlde there is not one single map. As readers approaching such a work, then, whether we approach as literary scholars, cartographers, or biographers, we may find ourselves in unfamiliar territory. Fortunately, there are recognizable landmarks. A good deal is already known about the life of our unconventional author and translator, and a good deal as well is known about the life of Lee; this information, besides the Mirror itself, sheds useful light on such questions as how and why
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Elizabeth chose to carry out her translation, when she did so, and whether she was indeed capable of doing so at the age of eleven or twelve. Conversely, Elizabeth’s work within the pages of this particular translation makes it a sort of mirror of her own pre-adolescent world; in it, we may see reflections of her childhood experiences, character, and concerns, and in it as well we may discern some of the features of the adult writer she would grow to be. Itself a valuable biographical source, then, The Mirror of the Worlde confirms what other witnesses have claimed about Elizabeth’s intellectual precocity. However, it also challenges certain current beliefs about her family’s social status and her own socialization, for it reveals to us a child who was not as solitary or self-sufficient as most biographers have claimed. Eccentric and unconventional, yet deeply concerned with doing the right thing; sometimes hasty or impulsive, yet capable of the most dogged determination; sheltered within the high walls of her parents’ Cotswolds home, yet well acquainted with some of the most lively minds of her day; fluent in at least two languages and sensitive to nuance in both, yet casual about parentheses and uninterested in paragraphing; confident in her intellectual abilities and unafraid to demonstrate them, yet keenly aware of the restrictions her own world placed upon even the most capable of women: that is the Elizabeth Tanfield we meet on the pages of this, her earliest extant work.
Elizabeth Tanfield Cary, Lady Falkland: The Girl from Burford Priory The first full-length biography of Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland: Her Life, was written by one of her daughters;1 several other biographies followed, some by nineteenth-century writers impressed and intrigued by Cary’s mid-life conversion to Roman Catholicism, and some by literary scholars impressed and intrigued by Cary’s verse drama, The Tragedy of Mariam. Without the labours of Georgiana Fullerton, Barry Weller, Margaret W. Ferguson, Heather Wolfe, and many others, my own work would not have been possible; thanks to their labours, most of the basic facts of Elizabeth Cary’s life are known to us, even though the precise date of her birth is not. Nonetheless, little attention hitherto has been paid to either the material or the social environments in which she passed her childhood. Elizabeth was born in either 1585 or 15862 in Burford, Oxfordshire, the only child of Lawrence Tanfield and his wife Elizabeth Symondes. A gifted and ambitious “lawyer, afterward judge, and Lord Chief Baron” (Life, 183), Tanfield was knighted in 1604, two years after his daughter’s marriage. His
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rise began shortly after his own marriage in 1584, and by the time Elizabeth was an infant he was a Member of Parliament and already wealthy enough to purchase the largest house in Burford. Tanfield then set about an ambitious improvement program, enlarging and updating the house to the point where it was deemed suitable to host Queen Elizabeth I in 1592. Built on the ruins of a twelfth-century “Hospital dedicated to St. John,”3 Tanfield’s home was known as the Priory;4 indeed, the building, despite having undergone many more alterations to its structure since Tanfield’s time, is known as the Priory to this day. Elizabeth’s daughter asserts in the opening sentence of the Life that her mother “was born … at the Priory of Burford, her father’s house” (183), and although this biographer may be in error about Elizabeth’s having been born there, there is little reason to doubt that the Priory was her childhood home from an early age. Historians of the Priory have not been able to establish the exact date at which it passed into Tanfield’s hands, and the owners of what is today the Bay Tree Hotel and was once a relatively modest home on Burford’s Sheep Street claim that the Tanfields lived at that address in the early years of their marriage.5 King Henry VIII’s barber, Edmund Harman, had upon the dissolution of the monasteries “obtained a lease of the hospital property for the duration of the lives of himself and his wife from the King for £109,”6 but exactly what happened after Harman’s death is not clear. As Michael Balfour reports, “It has been generally supposed that the Hospital/Priory reverted to the Crown against the wishes of the Brays [Harman’s daughter and son-in-law], and was sold to Lawrence Tanfield for £1900, probably at the time of his marriage.” This history is complicated, however, by “a document dated 1588” in which some of Harman’s heirs delivered to other relatives as trustees “a parcel of properties … which include the priory House at Burford … for the use of Edmund Bray and his wife.”7 Balfour reasons that “the 1588 document looks like a defensive action” produced after the fact, pointing out that Tanfield would have had to take possession several years earlier than 1592 in order to complete his massive building project in time for the royal visit.8 Of course, even if Tanfield did take possession in 1584, we may still wonder where he and his family lived while the construction was carried out. But if the author of the Life is not precisely correct about where the Tanfields lived in the year Elizabeth was born, this seems the kind of mistake easily made by a daughter who heard her mother refer to one childhood home often, and to that one only. If Elizabeth’s birth home was that house on Sheep Street, then, she probably left there when she was too young to carry many lasting memories with her.9 There is no good reason to doubt that Elizabeth
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lived in the Priory while she was planning and carrying out her translation of Ortelius and had lived there for many years before that. It would be very surprising, therefore, if this environment had no effect on her understanding of the world she lived in and of her place within it. This is a point to which I will return in the concluding pages of this introduction. Yet even in 1597 Elizabeth must have known that the place her parents intended for her was at the side of a suitable husband and that the Priory would therefore not be her home forever. In 1602 she was married to Sir Henry Cary, a connection of Sir Henry Lee’s but a man whom she herself hardly knew. They lived mainly apart for the first years of their marriage, but in 1609 she bore her first child, and over the following years she bore ten more, all but one of whom survived infancy. In the early years of her marriage she wrote The Tragedy of Mariam (c. 1604, first published 1612) and another tragedy, now lost; at some later point, probably 1626, she wrote multiple drafts of a history of Edward II, although this was published only after her death and for years was ascribed to her husband.10 In 1622 Viscount Falkland was made Lord Deputy of Ireland, and between 1622 and 1625 Lady Falkland and the children lived there with him; in 1625 she returned with some of the children to England. Around 1624 her father disinherited her, probably for signing her jointure over to her husband (Life, 194–5); in 1626 she converted to Catholicism, upon which her husband abandoned her financially. In 1630 was published her translation from French into English of The Reply of the Most Illustrious Cardinall of Perron, to the Answeare of the King of Great Britaine. She faithfully attended her husband’s deathbed in 1633 and died herself in 1639, aged either fifty-three or fifty-four, as the Life records. By the time of her death six of her children had converted to Catholicism, although one of these, Patrick, returned to Protestantism later. Four daughters joined the monastery of Our Lady of Consolation in Cambrai, where one of them, with later input from siblings, wrote Lady Falkland: Her Life, thus becoming her mother’s first biographer. This record has remained for centuries the main source of information about Elizabeth Tanfield’s childhood. It is a detailed and often remarkably frank work in many ways, but as several scholars before me have observed, it is primarily a spiritual biography; according to Marion Wynne-Davies’s calculations, accounts of “conversations” about “conversions … take up almost 90 percent of the text.”11 As an adult, Lady Falkland was praised in print for her wit and learning by such poets as John Davies of Hereford and Ben Jonson; as a child, Mistress Tanfield was praised likewise by the poet Michael Drayton. However, the Life does not mention any of these
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literary connections, and in my view it also significantly underplays young Elizabeth’s real appreciation of and need for intellectual companionship. Here, in The Mirror of the Worlde, we have another valuable witness to Elizabeth Tanfield’s youth: a work in her own hand, albeit a work of translation. It is a work, furthermore, which complements, contextualizes, and sometimes invites us to reconsider what we thought we knew about her formative years, even as it points to new routes for scholarly exploration of her mature writings.
The Work of the Translator: Date, Source, and Title of The Mirror of the Worlde But what, exactly, did Elizabeth translate, and when did she do it? When could she have done it? These are not easy questions to answer, in part because of the nature of translation and in part because of obstacles that Elizabeth herself has put in our way. One obvious problem is that she provides a date nowhere in the manuscript. There is, however, another problem posed by her title (see figure 1), although it is much less obvious. This title had early biographers looking for a source text called Le Miroir du Monde, but as it turns out, Elizabeth’s title is one of the few non-literal translations in the entire manuscript. As a further complication, whatever date we settle upon must also refer to a time in Elizabeth’s young life when she may reasonably be believed to have possessed the necessary skills. From one point of view, establishing the source and date of Elizabeth’s translation appertains to the drier sort of scholarship, and the reader who wishes to do so may choose to skip to the next parts of this introduction, which focus on what The Mirror of the Worlde can tell us about Elizabeth’s development as a writer. What follows here, however, lays a partial foundation for that discussion, for we must establish the source text definitively before we can draw any meaningful conclusions about Elizabeth’s skill and strategies as a translator; and in order to arrive at any kind of satisfactory answer to the question of when she produced her Mirror we must consider a wide range of literary and biographical evidence. Much of this is evidence to which later discussions will return. Although we cannot state with complete certainty the year in which Elizabeth Tanfield translated Ortelius for her uncle, information that she provides in the Mirror’s title page and dedication allows us to establish definite limits to the range of possible dates, and points furthermore to 1597 as the most likely year within that range. We may be even more precise in identifying her source text, despite the large number of French
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editions available for her to choose from, because of the thoroughness and accuracy of Elizabeth’s translation: contrary to what has been stated elsewhere, the map descriptions she translates are those found in the nearly identical 1588 and 1590 editions of L’Epitome du Théâtre du Monde d’Abraham Ortelius, abbreviated hereafter as the 1588/90 Epitome.12 Both these pocket-sized editions were published in Antwerp by Christoffel Plantin for Filips Galle, with text by Peter Heyns.13 In the ninety-four map descriptions that both these editions contain, Elizabeth would have found everything she needed for her translation, in just the right order, and very little else. As Appendices A and B and the following discussion should make clear, this simply cannot be said of any other French edition of Ortelius printed in the years before her marriage. All Cary scholars who cite the Mirror agree on the latest possible date of translation based on the fact that Elizabeth identifies herself as “E T” on the title page (1r) and as “E Tanfelde” in the dedication (2r). Since she ceased being Elizabeth Tanfield upon her marriage in 1602 to Sir Henry Cary, the use of her maiden name in both places allows us confidently to assign 1602 as the latest possible year of translation. More misleading than helpful to previous scholars, however, has been the name that Elizabeth chose to give her translation itself: “The mirror of the Worlde translated / Out of French into Englishe” (1r). Beginning with Kenneth B. Murdock, most scholars citing the manuscript have taken Elizabeth’s title at face value, but the naming of map books in late sixteenth-century Europe was a complicated business. In his 1939 biography, Murdock states that she “wrote between 1598 and 1602, a translation of Abraham Ortelius’s Le Miroir du Monde, an epitome of geography published in Amsterdam when she was thirteen.”14 If Elizabeth was born in 1585,15 she turned thirteen in 1598; the work Murdock specifies can only be Le Miroir du Monde; / Ou, Epitome Du Théâtre / D’Abraham Ortelius, published in Amsterdam by Zachariah Heyns in 1598 (KAN, 334.01). This was the only Ortelius derivate entitled Miroir du Monde to come out in 1598, and in fact it is the only Miroir du Monde ever published in Amsterdam.16 Yet by 1602 thirteen French editions of Ortelius had been published: five editions of the folio Théâtre de l’Univers,17 published by Ortelius himself, and eight editions of the pocket-sized derivate,18 some of which were entitled Miroir du Monde and some of which were not, and some of which were probably published without Ortelius’s knowledge, input, or permission. Any one of these thirteen French editions could have been available for Elizabeth to consult before her marriage. Consequently, the 1598 Miroir need not be considered the only possible source text. Indeed, close in-
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spection reveals it to be a very poor candidate. This particular edition of Ortelius may have the right title, but it contains the wrong maps in the wrong order, and not enough of them. Since it was not the first or only Miroir published, we need no longer consider the 1598 Miroir to be the only possible source, nor need we consider 1598 to be the earliest possible date of composition. To be sure, a cursory glance at the 1598 Miroir would not lead any reader to disqualify it. Like Elizabeth’s Mirror, this Miroir begins with a map of “Le Monde Universel” (17v). The next four maps in each version are not quite in the same order, but they do cover the same ground: in the Mirror, “The universall worlde” (3r) is followed by “Europa” (3v), “Asia” (4r), “Africa” (4v), and then “The new worlde” (5r). In the 1598 Miroir, “Le Monde Universel” is followed by “Le Nouveau Monde” (18v), “Afrique” (19v), “Asia” (20v), and then “Europe” (21v). But it is typical for an edition of Ortelius to begin with some variation on this set of overview maps. If we look beyond the first few pages to the more specific maps that follow, we discover Elizabeth’s Mirror and the 1598 Miroir to be organized according to two quite incompatible plans. There are only eighty maps in the 1598 Miroir du Monde; the Mirror contains descriptions of ninety-four maps, under ninety-three titles. (Parts of the descriptions of two different maps, those of Luxembourg and Hainault, are combined under the title “Lucembourge” [19v]. See textual note 180.) Elizabeth simply cannot have found all the maps she describes contained in the 1598 Miroir du Monde. Nor can it be the case that Elizabeth translated the Miroir du Monde and then added twelve texts from a different source, as the chart in Appendix B demonstrates. For as soon as we move beyond the opening five maps of the world and the known continents, differences between her work and the Miroir du Monde abound. Where we find England, Scotland, and Ireland combined on one map in the 1598 Miroir, for instance (26r), we find a separate description for each country in Elizabeth’s Mirror (5v; 6r; 6v). Most noticeably, Europe is configured very differently in the two texts: the 1598 Miroir contains many maps that have no direct equivalent in the Mirror (e.g., “Twenta et bentham,” 49r; “Valquebourg,” 57r; and “Le Territoire de Rome,” 86r). Furthermore, the Mirror contains an even greater number of map titles with no direct equivalent in the 1598 Miroir, including a number of non-European regions, such as “China” (47r), “Turkie” (48v), “Ægipte” (51r), and “Barbaria” (53v). In fact, there are only forty map description titles in the Mirror for which directly corresponding titles may be found in the 1598 Miroir – fewer than half of the total. The 1588/90 Epitome, on the other hand, contains maps of all the same
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regions that Elizabeth describes in her Mirror, and they are presented in exactly the same order. Nor does Elizabeth offer any description that does not have a directly corresponding text in the 1588/90 Epitome. Her text does not offer a separate description for Hainault, as I explain later in this introduction. Otherwise, as Appendix B demonstrates in full, the Mirror matches this edition’s structure perfectly. Moreover, Elizabeth’s actual translations of the map descriptions themselves are remarkable for their fidelity to the texts found in the 1588/90 Epitome. Departures from the original are significant, as I discuss at length in the second part of this introduction, but they consist entirely of minor errors in translation; occasional omissions of individual words, phrases, or (more rarely) entire sentences; and brief instances of paraphrasing or elaboration. The Mirror contains no instances of extended revision, invention, or interpolation. In order that the reader may appreciate just how closely Elizabeth’s text follows that of her source, I here provide the full text of three different descriptions of Italy: that of the 1598 Miroir du Monde (printed in Protestant Amsterdam), that produced by Elizabeth, and that of the 1590 Epitome (printed in Catholic Antwerp). Here is the 1598 Miroir’s: L’Italie est gouverné pour le jourd’huy de ces Superieurs-cy: Premierement y a le Pape de Rome, qui tient les païs appartenants á l’Eglise, appelé le Patrimoine de S. Pierre: Le Roy d’Espagne, qui tient le Royaume de Naples, & le Duché de Milan; lesquelles deux parties font le moitié de l’Italie; Puis y a le Prince de Piedmont, & encore cinq Ducs, à sçavoir, le Duc de Florence, de Ferrare, de Mantouë, d’Urbin, & de Parma; puis encore deux villes & Republiques, à sçavoir, celle de Venize, & celle de Gennes. Toute l’Italie donques est pour le jourd’huy partagée entre ces dix Princes. Si par dessus ceux-là il y en ait encore des autres, ils sont de petite estime, ou ce sont vassaux, estans sous la subjection des susdicts. Il n’y a Province en toute la Chrestianté, qi soit mieux ornée des villes manifiques, & bien cultivées; entre lesquelles celles-cy sont les plus fameuses, & que les Autheurs & la commune, honorent de ces tiltres, ou surnoms: Rome la saincte, Naples la Gentile, Florence la belle, Venize la riche, Gennes la superbe, Milan la grande, ou la populeuse, Boulogne la grasse, & Ravenne l’ancienne. De sorte que nous estimons, que celuy qui n’a veu l’Italie, ne sçait que c’est de richesse, d’orgueil, de sumptuosité, ny de plaisir charnel, ou des yeux. Et pource qu’il ne semblast point qu’en cedit païs y manquast
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quelque chose, c’est luy seul, entre tous les autres de la Chrestienté, qui nous donne la Manne, que l’on appelle, le pain celeste, lequel y tomber du Ciel au païs de Calabre. Mais celuy qui prend plaisir de cognoistre tout ce païs-cy, ensemble toutes les belles villes & places, sans les aller voir, qu’il lise ce que Leandre Albert en a esscrit, qui en a faict une description tres-diligente. (Miroir, 81v) [Italy is governed today by these Superiors: First, there is the Pope of Rome, who holds the country belonging to the Church, called the Patrimony of St. Peter: The King of Spain, who holds the Kingdom of Naples, & the Duchy of Milan; these two parts make up half of Italy; Then there is the Prince of Piedmont, & furthermore five Dukes, namely, the Duke of Florence, of Ferrara, of Mantua, of Urbino, & of Parma; then beyond this two cities & Republics, namely, that of Venice, & that of Genoa. All of Italy therefore is divided today between these ten Princes. If there are some others below them, they are of little regard, or are vassals, being under the subjection of the foresaid. There is not a Province in all Christendom, which is more ornamented with magnificent and well cultured cities; among which these are the more famous ones, & the Authors & the common people, honor them with these titles, or nicknames: Rome the holy, Naples the genteel, Florence the beautiful, Venice the rich, Genoa the superb, Milan the great, or the populous, Boulogne the fertile, & Ravenna the ancient. So it is our opinion, that he who has not seen Italy, knows neither wealth, pride, sumptuousness, nor carnal or visual pleasure. And in order that this country may not seem to lack anything, it is this land only, among all the others of Christendom, that gives us Manna, the celestial bread, which falls from the Sky to the land of Calabria. But one can take pleasure in knowing all this land, all the beautiful cities & places, without going to see them, if he reads what Leandre Albert has written, who did a very diligent description of it.]19 The 1598 Miroir begins its description of Italy with a litany of division and decline; we find nothing resembling that in Elizabeth’s version: There is no man that houldeth not his own Countrie in greate accounte but this Countrie of Italy hath alwaies bene highlie esteemed by people of straunge nations; and not without cause:
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for, it is the Queene of Christendome, and the princesse of the world which by her force and poure haith bene reduced under her obedience and by her learning and doctrine haith bene instructed and trained up in politique manners, lawes and customes. In such sorte that this region of Italy haith always bene highelie commended by all wise and learned men. And what is he at this præsent tyme that professeth learninge that after he haith studied all those thinges which he thinketh may serve for the attaining of some science[,] as the knowledge of many tongues, languges, Physick, Lawe, Astronomy or Theologie &c: that besides all this will not goe se Italy being of opinion that this voyage maketh up the perfection of this arte & knowledge. This region by nature is of a good situacion and well fortified especially by the Sea and the reste of the mountaines which are as walls unto it. It is divided in the middle (beginninge at the mountaines called Alpes, above the towne of GENUA unto the Countrie of Puglia upon the Sea) by the mountaines APPENIM from wch there runne many rivers wch on both sides yeelde themselves into the Sea. There is no Province in all Christendom wch is better garnished with sumptuous and magnificent townes, amonge wch these are most famous and they wch the authors and vulgars honour with these titles or surnames. Holy ROME, gentil NAPLES, faire FLORENCE, rich VENICE, proude or statelie GENUA, greate or populous MILAN, fatt or fruitfull BOULOGNE, and auncient RAVENNA[.] (Mirror, 34r) The similarities between these two passages may remind us that, whatever Elizabeth’s source, all Ortelius epitomes drew to some extent on those that had been previously published. The differences are not in themselves conclusive evidence that Elizabeth found her French original elsewhere, since any translator may exercise licence. But as the corresponding passage from the 1590 Epitome illustrates, Elizabeth took very little licence indeed: Il n’y a celui qui ne prise sa propre patrie: mais ce païs d’Italie a tousiours esté hautement loué des gens d’estrange nation, & non sans cause; car c’est la Royne de la Chrestienté, & la Princesse du Monde, qui par sa force & puissance a esté reduit sous son obeissance, & de son sçavoir & doctrine l’a enseigné & policé de bonnes meurs, loix, & coustumes. De maniere que ceste Region d’Italie a tousiours esté en grande recommandation à tous hommes sçavants. Et qui est celuy, pour le temps present, faisant profession
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des lettres, lequel apres avoir apprins tout ce qu’il pense pouvoir servir pour venir à quelque science, comme de la cognoissance de plusieurs langues, de la Medicine, des Droits, de l’Astronomie, ou Theologie, &c. ne veuille encoure par dessus cela aller voir l’Italie? estant d’opinion que ce voyage luy defaut pour parvenir à la perfection de son art & sçavoir. Ceste Region est de nature de bonne situation, & bien remparé, principalement de la Mer, & le reste de montagnes, qui luy sont comme de murs: divisé par le milieu (commençant aux montagnes appellées les Alpes, pardessus la ville de Gennes, jusques au païs de Puglie sur la mer) par le mont Appenin; duquel sourdent plusieurs rivieres, qui des deux costez du païs se viennet rendre dans la Mer. Il n’y a Province en toute la Chrestienté, qui soit mieux ornée des villes magnifiques & bien cultivées; entre lesquelles celles-cy sont les plus fameuses, & que les auteurs & la commune honorent de ces tiltres, ou surnoms; Rome la saincte, Naples la gentile, Florence la belle, Venize la riche, Gennes la superbe, Milan la grande ou la populeuse, Boulogne la grasse, & Ravenne l’ancienne. (Epitome, 60v) Elizabeth’s description of Italy, quoted above, is such a faithful translation of this passage that there is no need to provide another one here. (To see what few minor departures from the literal Elizabeth has made, I refer the reader to textual notes 321 to 325.) There is really no need any longer to consider the 1598 Miroir a serious contender for the role of Elizabeth’s source text. Nor does any edition other than the 1588/90 Epitome come close to matching Elizabeth’s text: substantial differences between editions are more the exception than the rule. The differences between editions exist primarily because Ortelius continued to collect maps throughout his lifetime, and he waited until he had a significant number of new ones to add to his atlas before producing each new edition; his imitators and adaptors followed a similar policy. For instance, the world’s first atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of 1570, contains 53 maps (KAN, 31:001); the 1573 Theatrum contains 70 maps (KAN, 31:011); the 1595 Theatrum contains 147 (KAN, 31:051). Yet at least Ortelius was directly involved in the production of each one of these folio editions; as Peter van der Krogt explains, Ortelius “himself drew all his maps in manuscript before passing them to the engravers” (KAN, IIIA , 34), and he wrote the accompanying Latin texts. This is not the case with the more numerous (because more affordable) pocket-sized epitomes. Maps had to be completely re-drawn
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to fit the much smaller page, and it is doubtful whether Ortelius had a direct hand in this aspect of the project: Ortelius was in England while his friends Peter Heyns and Filips Galle were working on the first Spieghel (1577), and since Galle’s maps are “rather crude,” it seems unlikely that Ortelius helped draw them (van der Krogt, KAN , IIIA , 270). Heyns, who had translated Ortelius’s Latin texts for the first Theatrum, composed descriptions in Dutch verse for the inaugural Spieghel, and then rendered them in French prose for the first Miroir (ibid., 268). “In 1601, a competitive edition of the Epitome was produced” by a rival, Jan van Keerbergen, with a new text by Michael Coignet and newly engraved maps that “look much better than the Galle maps” (ibid., 269). This rivalry did not, of course, prevent van Kerbergen, Coignet, or others from using Ortelius’s name to advertise their product. The 1598 Miroir du Monde, published in the year of Ortelius’s death by Peter Heyns’s son Zacharias Heyns, is unique in that not one of the maps is printed from copperplate at all: all are printed from “older woodcuts of unknown origin” (ibid., 267). No wonder its structure is incommensurate with L’Epitome’s. There are greater similarities between the five French epitomes published by Galle (two with the title Miroir and three with the title Epitome). The 1579 Miroir du Monde contains seventy-two maps (KAN, 331:11); the 1583 Miroir du Monde just has a few new maps added, to make eightythree in total (KAN, 331:12). This is still eleven fewer than contained in the 1588/90 edition, however. Galle’s 1598 Epitome, on the other hand, contains 123 maps (KAN, 332:03). These are far too many for Elizabeth. For most practical purposes, the 1588 and 1590 Epitome editions (KAN, 332:01 and KAN, 332:02) may be treated as “identical” (KAN, 332:02). Both atlases contain exactly the same maps in exactly the same order, and although in the 1590 edition “the text has been reset,” there are no substantive differences in content. Van der Krogt identifies some differences between the actual maps in the two editions: he notes, for instance, that the letterpress title to map 23 is “AVSTRIACVS PRINCIPATVUS” in the 1588 edition, whereas it has been corrected to “AVRIACUS PRINCIPATVS” in the 1590 (KAN, 332:02). Additionally, I note that the 1590 text is in general more carefully pointed: many accents missing from the 1588 map descriptions are present in the 1590, and in several cases improvements have been made to the punctuation, including the addition of commas or the replacement of commas with colons. A few new errors have been introduced, however. For instance, whereas the 1588 Epitome refers to “le linge ou toile de Hollande [the linen or cloth of Holland]” (42v), the 1590 Epitome reads, “le ligne ou toile de Hollande [the line or cloth of Holland]” (42v). Such minor
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differences as these do not allow me to claim with complete certainty that Elizabeth’s source text must have been one of these two editions and not the other, especially given how relatively careless she is about punctuation (see Note on the Text.) Nevertheless, I do suggest that the evidence is weighted slightly in favour of the 1590 Epitome, and for that reason this is the edition I quote throughout this introduction and the textual notes. One point in favour of the 1588 edition is that Elizabeth spells the name of one of Ortelius’s sources as “Belforest” (10v). This version is closer to that found in the 1588 Epitome, which is “Belleforest” (15v), than to that found in the 1590 Epitome, which is “Belle-Forest” (15v). Since, however, Elizabeth may well have known of this scholar from another source, or may have consulted another source (text or person) for help in translating the name, this is far from conclusive evidence. Furthermore, her treatment of place names points us away from the 1588 Epitome. For one thing, she asserts that the town of St Omer “long agoe was called “Sithieu” (20r); the 1590 Epitome also, correctly, reads “Sithieu” (36v), whereas the 1588 Epitome incorrectly reads “Pithieu” (36v). Similarly, in her description of “Asia,” Elizabeth calls Ceylon “Zeiland” (4r); the 1590 Epitome reads “Zeyland” (2r), a form closer to Elizabeth’s spelling than the “Zeylan” found in the 1588 Epitome (2r). In the case of “Sithieu” it is possible that Elizabeth worked from the 1588 edition and made the correction herself (or with guidance). However, her choice of “Zeiland” is harder to explain without pointing to the 1590 edition as an influence; although Ortelius gives “Zelandt” as one name for Ceylon in his Thesaurus, he does assert that it is “hodie [today] Zeilan.”20 In any case, we must be careful how much weight we give to Elizabeth’s rendition of place names, since most if not all had to be transformed somehow in translating from the French into English, and since much work remains to be done on the question of how she went about doing so. Elizabeth’s translations of place names are often but not always felicitous;21 her method appears somewhat inconsistent, and since hers is the first known English translation of the first atlas of the world (or, to be precise, a derivate thereof), there is no one source that could have given her all the English equivalents for the numerous names of countries, duchies, towns, bishoprics, and villages that she was faced with in her translation.22 Some further evidence (though slight) in favour of the 1590 Epitome lies in the fact that the punctuation in Elizabeth’s text sometimes follows that of the 1590 Epitome more closely than that of the 1588 text. In the description of Africa, for instance, there are two cases where the 1588 text has no comma, whereas the 1590 text does have one, and so does Elizabeth’s cor-
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responding translation.23 However, there are many points at which Elizabeth’s punctuation diverges significantly from both French texts. This is something we should expect from any competent translator, of course, and many of these departures from the original are elegant and effective.24 Yet not all are, by any means, as the textual notes demonstrate. The biggest difficulty with trying to use punctuation as grounds for preferring one Epitome over the other is Elizabeth’s relative carelessness about punctuation, especially commas. It is true that in one place her description of Africa follows the 1588 Epitome more closely than the 1590, for Elizabeth writes “Guinea and other kingdomes” (4v) to translate a text which in the 1588 version reads “la Guinée & autres royaumes,” whereas the 1590 version reads “la Guinée, & autres royaumes” (3v). Given, however, that the Mirror contains such translations as the following, it is difficult to give much significance to a missing comma: Bretagne , jadis dicte Armoricque, a pour borne vers son Orient, le païs du Maine, & partie de l’Anjou; au Septentrion … (“Bretagne,” 1588 Epitome, 17v) Bretagne , jadis dicte Armoricque, a pour borne, vers son Orient, le païs du Maine, & partie de l’Anjou; au Septentrion … (“Bretagne,” 1590 Epitome, 17v) Britany heretofore called ARMORICA haith borderinge upon it Eastward the Cuntrie of MAINE and parte of Anjou Northward … (“Britanye,” Mirror, 11r) I tentatively suggest that the presence of punctuation be considered of more weight than its absence when comparing Elizabeth’s text with those of the possible source texts, but neither can be considered conclusive evidence. Clearly, further study is needed to resolve completely the question of whether Elizabeth’s source was the 1588 Epitome or the 1590 Epitome, and it may not be possible ever to do so. In any case, it is evident that Elizabeth’s source text was published when she was no older than five, not when she was thirteen, a fact that does not help us to fix a lower limit to the date of composition. Fortunately, however, Elizabeth’s dedication allows us to determine the earliest possible date quite precisely (see figure 2). She salutes the intended recipient of her manuscript as follows: “To the righte honorable my Singular good / Uncle Sr Henry Lee knighte / of the moste noble order of the gar-
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ter” (Mirror, 2r). Lee, who was technically not Elizabeth’s uncle but the uncle of her mother, instituted the Accession Day tilts and long served as Queen’s Champion; Queen Elizabeth I rewarded his many years of service by admitting him to the prestigious Order of the Garter in 1597.25 Thus the manuscript could not have been written before 1597, and I think it likely that such an ambitious and time-consuming project as this was conceived as a gift in honour of the occasion. It was an event that obviously meant a great deal to Lee: he marked the occasion by having two hundred men, all dressed in blue, follow him in the ceremonial procession of newly elected Knights.26 Elizabeth’s dedication to Lee begins by celebrating his status, and since we have no evidence that she made a regular practice of offering him elaborate gifts, it seems likely that the occasion for this one was as “Singular” as its newly-honoured recipient. Elizabeth Tanfield was still very young in 1597: at most eleven, turning twelve. Yet she was, as all biographers agree, a gifted and precocious child, so an exercise such as this translation would have been well within her ability at that age. In fact, by 1597 Elizabeth had already produced enough evidence of her skill with languages to merit a dedication of her own. As biographers have frequently noted, Michael Drayton dedicates to Elizabeth Tanfield two of the verse epistles in Englands Heroicall Epistles, the first edition of which was published in 1597.27 What I would add is that, even if we make allowances for whatever hopes for preferment may have motivated his several dedications, the one to Elizabeth stands out above all the others in this volume, both for the specific evidence Drayton offers of her worth and for the superlatives with which he describes it. Drayton observes precedence by dedicating the first pair of epistles to Lucy, Countess of Bedford, and then by honouring Lord Monteagle; Lady Anne Harrington; Edward, Earl of Bedford; and Lord Henry Howard each with a dedication before he gives Elizabeth her turn. Yet others follow Elizabeth; this child of a lawyer (not yet knighted) does not come last. Nor does Drayton qualify his praise according to rank. Indeed, his praise of the Countess of Bedford is remarkably restrained; the only merit he actually ascribes to her is a “judiciall eye” (EHE , A 4r). This very restraint may be considered the highest praise possible, of course. As Helen Hackett has shown, panegyrics of the 1590s often relied on “the trope of artistic modesty,”28 and Drayton locates this dedication in that tradition by invoking “modestie” as the reason why he does not “say” as “much … to a Countesse” as he “would” (EHE , A 4r). But more vivid praise for Elizabeth does not just mean he is unintimidated by her. In addressing his second female dedicatee, the widely ad-
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mired Lady Anne Harrington, Drayton does not invoke the trope of modesty; rather, he writes of her “many vertues knowne in generall to all” at some length, specifying his dedicatee’s “Honour … vertue,” and “great thoughts” (EHE, 17r). Yet in all this praise he makes no mention of knowledge, skill, talent, or even appreciation of the arts. In this context his praise of Elizabeth Tanfield is really striking: To my honoured Mistres, Mistress Elizabeth Tanfelde, the sole Daughter and heire, of that famous and learned Lawyer, Lawrence Tanfelde Esquire. Faire and vertuous Mistresse, since first it was my good fortune to be a witnes of the many rare perfections where-with nature and education have adorned you: I have been forced since that time to attribute more admiration to your sexe, then ever Petrarch could before persuade mee to by the prayses of his Laura. Sweete is the French tongue, more sweet the Italian, but most sweet are they both if spoken by your admired selfe. If Poesie were prayselesse, your vertues alone were a subject sufficient to make it esteemed, though amongst the barbarous Getes: by how much the more your tender yeres give scarcely warrant for your more then womanlike wisedom, by so much is your judgement, and reading, the more to be wondred at. The Graces shall have one more Sister by your selfe, and England by your birth shall add one Muse more to the Muses: I rest the humbly devoted servant to my deere and modest Mistresse: to whom I wish, the happiest fortunes I can divise. Michaell Drayton. (EHE , 43v) Such a wealth of specifics and of encomiastic language strongly suggests that Drayton was familiar with Elizabeth’s work, and moreover had seen in it evidence of an ability that genuinely impressed him.29 Although the Life does not mention either Drayton or the Mirror, what Drayton’s dedication says of this gifted child’s accomplishments is entirely consistent with what Elizabeth’s first biographer does tell us; furthermore, these accomplishments are all in evidence in this single project, her translation of Ortelius. As I point out in the next part of this introduction, Elizabeth translates Italian as well as French in her Mirror of the Worlde; these are the same two languages Drayton credits her here with knowing. She also proves herself an accomplished versifier, showing an interest
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and ability that Drayton implicitly acknowledges when he asserts that her “virtues alone were a subject sufficient to make” poetry “esteemed.” Of all the other dedications to women in Englands Heroicall Epistles, the one whose style this one most closely resembles is the last, written to “Mistres Frauncis Goodere.” Drayton had known the Goodere family from his youth and had been in the service of another branch of the family; he dedicates another pair of epistles in this collection to Henry Goodere, as well. Clearly Drayton is making a concerted attempt to attract the family’s collective attention.30 Nevertheless, both Gooderes come after Elizabeth in the order of his dedicatees. Furthermore, although Drayton praises Frances’s “excellent education” as well as her “milde disposition,” describing her as “all perfection, both of wisedom and learning” (EHE, 70r), he mentions nothing comparable to the specific accomplishments he attributes to Elizabeth, nor to the singular future he prophesies for her: to “add one Muse more to the Muses.” The young scholar Drayton describes here with such assurance is entirely capable of a project such as this translation. Since Elizabeth had both means and motive to carry out her translation at this time, then, I see no reason to suggest a later date than 1597. In fact, textual evidence suggests that in Englands Heroicall Epistles Drayton may have wished to acknowledge the very project we have before us now. If Elizabeth could translate French and Italian and write heroic couplets in her Mirror then of course she could do so elsewhere as well, and we have no way of knowing what else of her early work Drayton saw. But in his dedication to Elizabeth and in the opening lines of the epistle that follows, Drayton does something else that he does not do in any of the other dedications in Englands Heroicall Epistles: he makes reference to the residents of foreign lands, namely the “barbarous Getes” (EHE, 43v). Furthermore, in the epistle that follows he imagines the Duke of Suffolk writing these lines to Queen Margaret: “Those Savages which worshyp the sunnes rise, / would hate theyr God, if they beheld thyne eyes” (EHE, 44r). According to L’Epitome, China contains just such pagans: “Ils adorent le Soleil & la Lune, & les estoilles; voire aussi le diable; à fin qu’il ne leur apporte quelques maux, comme ils disent [They adore the Sun & the Moon, & the stars; likewise the devil; in order that he bring upon them no evils, as they say]” (84v). Elizabeth omits translating this sentence in her Mirror, but, as I discuss in the next part of this introduction, that does not mean she did not read it. It may rather signify a careful decision to take her audience into account: besides her uncle, Elizabeth could have expected her parents to review her work, and she may have decided not to risk offending this theologically conservative readership. If so, then
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like Drayton in addressing the Duchess of Bedford, she understands the value of strategic restraint. Nevertheless, she could be expected, as Drayton’s audience, to remember what Ortelius says about the Chinese. The question that remains is what we can learn from Elizabeth’s choice of title, since it is not a literal translation and does not point us directly to either a source or date of translation. Elizabeth did not need to have known the 1598 Miroir du Monde specifically in order to encounter the term Miroir being used to describe an edition of Ortelius’s map book: a Miroir du Monde was published in 1579 and another in 1583; there were Dutch Spieghels published in 1577 and 1583 as well. In fact, the first and for several years the only epitomes of Ortelius’s map book were all called “Mirror” in one language or another. No doubt this helps to explain why it is that, as van der Krogt has explained, among consumers of atlases in the late sixteenth century it was fairly common to refer to any example of the genre as a mirror, miroir, or spieghel.31 Moreover, the 1588/90 Epitome itself provides an example of this practice. For although this work does not contain the word Miroir anywhere in its title or prefatory material, we find this “Privilege” printed on the last page of both possible source texts: “Il est permis à Philippe Galle tailleur en cuivre, de pouvoir imprimer ou faire imprimer & vendre en ces pais bas, Le Miroir du Monde [Filips Galle, engraver, is permitted to print or to have printed and to sell, in these Low Countries, The Mirror of the World]” (1588/90 Epitome, 94v). Consequently, Elizabeth’s choice of title points to familiarity with the atlas genre in general, thereby inviting us to consider the possibility that Elizabeth consulted more than one edition of Ortelius before choosing her authority. It also points to her familiarity with L’Epitome’s end matter (see figure 3). For both these reasons, then, we may consider her choice of a non-literal title as another carefully calculated strategic move. By privileging the title that is, in this edition of Ortelius, found only on that closing page, Elizabeth’s translation draws the knowledgeable reader’s attention to that same page, an act that signals respect for that page’s contents and, by implication, for the institution that granted the “Approbation” printed directly above the “Privilege”: “Nihil habet contra Catholicam fidem” (94v). Although there is nothing in Elizabeth’s chosen title to alarm such staunch Protestants as her parents, then, it nevertheless hints at a possible factor in her choice of source text for this translation exercise: the 1588/90 Epitome contains nothing contrary to the Catholic faith.32 Taken by itself, of course, this echo of “Approbation” in Elizabeth’s title is not conclusive evidence of early recusancy. Nevertheless, it raises an important question: whether Elizabeth’s interest in Catholicism could have begun at a much earlier age than stated in the Life. To do this ques-
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tion justice, of course, we must closely consider the text that follows the title, and I shall take up this matter in parts of this introduction to follow. For now, however, I would note that, according to the Life, “when she was about twenty year old, through reading, she grew into much doubt of her religion. The first occasion of it was reading a Protestant book much esteemed, called Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity” (190). As Wolfe points out, the Life sometimes manipulates evidence in order to depict “the Protestant members of” Cary’s “immediate family … as closet or deathbed Catholics,” and that may be the case here.33 As the Life reports, “It seemed to” the twenty-year-old Cary that Hooker “left her hanging in the air, for having brought her so far (which she thought he did very reasonably), she saw not how, nor at what, she could stop, till she returned to the church from whence they were come. This was more confirmed in her by a brother of her husband’s returning out of Italy, with a good opinion of Catholic religion. His wit, judgment and conversation she was much pleased withal. He was a great reader of the Fathers, especially St Augustine … He persuaded her to read the Fathers also (what she had read till then having been for the most part poetry and history, expect [sic] Seneca, and some other such, whose Epistles it is probable she translated afore she left her father’s house)” (190). This narrative stresses the gaps in Cary’s earlier reading; its review of “what she had read till then” contains no mention of “Calvin’s Institutions,” even though the Life elsewhere identifies this as a text that she both read and resisted at an early age (188). Furthermore, since the Life nowhere, either in this passage or anywhere else, mentions her reading cartography or translating Ortelius, it cannot be considered a comprehensive record of her early education and inquiries. However, glossing over the religious doubts that young Elizabeth Tanfield entertained before her marriage allows her biographer not only to put Cary’s Protestant brother-in-law in the best possible (i.e., most Catholic) light, but also to frame Cary’s pursuit of Catholicism as an act of respect for her husband’s family. It may be that Cary never mentioned her Mirror to her children. It may also be that Cary’s biographer dismissed it as irrelevant to, or inconsistent with, her hagiographical narrative. In any case, I see no need to argue with the Life’s assertion that Cary’s program of deliberate and sustained theological inquiry began with her reading of Hooker; I do, however, posit that her imagination was engaged by the Roman alternative to English Protestantism at a much earlier age than twenty.34 In determining the source of Elizabeth’s translation, then, we learn also that she brought to the task of translation far more than a sense of gratitude to her uncle and an impressive familiarity with the French lan-
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guage. Her very title, so appropriate and yet so non-literal, invites us to read the work that follows as the product of a translator with unconventional interests in both cartography and Catholicism. It alerts us, as well, to the agency of a translator who is sensitive to the implications of her choices and deeply engaged with her material. When we move beyond the title, furthermore, to the text and presentation of the translation itself, we find that this Mirror of the World reflects a good deal of Elizabeth’s own interests and attitudes towards the social, political, cultural, and religious world she inhabits. That finding is the subject of the next two parts of this introduction.
1 The Translator’s “Pregnancy of Understanding”: 2 Elizabeth Tanfield’s Style Much of the early scholarship on The Tragedy of Mariam focuses on biographical echoes in the text, approaching Cary’s writing as the product and expression of her lived experience.35 The third part of this introduction likewise takes a biographical approach, and I will consider there the ways in which Cary’s circumstances as a child – as Elizabeth Tanfield – may have influenced the decisions she made about which work to translate and how to ensure its appeal to her readers. Here, however, I turn my attention to what the details of Elizabeth’s translation itself can tell us about her development as a writer. For the most part her work in The Mirror of the Worlde is both accurately literal and complete; consequently, it has been possible in preparing this edition to note virtually all significant departures from the source text.36 When these are considered collectively, a number of trends emerge: trends strongly suggesting that even while Elizabeth was demonstrating her proficiency in the French language and her competence as a speedy, accurate translator, she was also finding opportunities to pass subtle editorial judgment on L’Epitome’s content, to explore and develop themes that she would return to later in her mature work, and to practise her poetic technique. Elizabeth’s relatively few errors and omissions consistently reveal a lack of enthusiasm for the practical applications of maps in trade and warfare, accompanied by a lack of interest in the skills required for their construction or application. Her alterations or additions to the original are also highly consistent in their effects, although they suggest slightly different concerns. Collectively, these departures from the original convey a critique of imperialism; a condemnation of cultures that restrict women’s freedom of movement; enthusiastic admiration for women’s intellect and for the heroic qualities of strong, virtuous women; keen, even passionate interest in women’s
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power to move the hearts of their observers; and an equally keen interest in the poet’s work of marrying content with style.
“Northwarde, South and Easte”: Errors and Omissions Without hard evidence or testimony, it is impossible to know for certain just what Elizabeth’s writing process was, but the Mirror was probably her first and only copy. Margaret Reeves’s recent investigation into the four extant versions of Edward II (two manuscript versions, two print) demonstrates conclusively that Elizabeth Cary was, by the mid-1620’s at least, “a reviser of her own work,”37 so the possibility that the Mirror we have now is a fair copy of an earlier rough draft, now lost, cannot be entirely ruled out. The remarkable neatness of Elizabeth’s hand throughout the Mirror invites us to take this possibility seriously, and many of the errors she does make could conceivably be the result of hasty transcription from a rough translation. However, we do have the word of her first biographer, her daughter, that “whilst she was a child,” Elizabeth “learnt French, Spanish, [and] Italian, which she always understood very perfectly” (Life, 186), and we have her own word that, as an adult, she translated Cardinal du Perron’s Reply so quickly that “hee that writt it faire, hath lost more labour then I have done, for I dare avouch, it hath bene fower times as long in transcribing, as it was in translating” (Reply, ã2v). Much of the textual evidence in the Mirror suggests that Elizabeth produced this translation with comparable speed, rarely pausing to work out a passage or even to look up a word. Furthermore, one mistranslation, repeated several times before being corrected, strongly suggests that Elizabeth did not return to an earlier draft and make corrections: for each of its first five appearances in L’Epitome, she mistranslates “la Mer Mediterranée” (viii verso); 1v; 3v [twice]; 14v) as “the sowthe sea [or variant spelling]” (Mirror, 3r; 3v; 4v [twice]; 10r). However, with each one of its five subsequent appearances in L’Epitome (67v; 71v; 72v; 89v; 93v), she correctly translates “la Mer Mediterranée” as “the mediterranean Sea [spelled incorrectly the first time only]” (Mirror, 37v; 39v; 40r; 51r; 53v). In this case her writing process seems evident: she corrected the error when she could as she proceeded, but she did not go back to revise. (See also Note on the Text.) Elizabeth’s translation errors, for the most part, involve confusing similar words, or failing to recognize an idiomatic expression in time and thus translating too literally. In her description of “Denmarke,” for instance, she translates “poing [fist]” (L’Epitome, 46v) as “fish[i]” (Mirror, 26r); this suggests she confused “poing” with “poisson [fish].” Another minor error is her overly literal translation of “cannes à succre [sugarcane]” ( L’Epitome,
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24v) as “pipes of Sugar” (Mirror, 14v). Such errors as these point to haste, or over-confidence, or both. Yet their relative infrequency suggests that Elizabeth’s confidence in her abilities was, in general, justified. There is one extended passage where the vocabulary may have defeated her, but even here other explanations deserve consideration. In “Abissina or the Empire of Presbyter John,” Elizabeth translates the following: Il y a presque toute sorte de bestes grandes, comme elephans, lyons, tigres, loucerviers, taissons, singes & cerfs; mais F. Alvarese dit qu’il n’y vit onc en six ans qu’il y a esté aucun ours connil, chardonneret, ny coucou. (L’Epitome, 92v) There are almost all kinde of greate beastes, as Elephants Lyons[,] Tygers Ounces wolves apes & hartes. but F Alvaresa saith that in six yeares, there was never sene any beare, Conny, ferritte nor foxe. (Mirror, 52v) With eleven different animals to name in total, Elizabeth writes the names of four species in a distinct hand, represented in this edition by italics. She has, furthermore, left unusually large spaces around these particular words in the manuscript, which suggests that she was unable to translate the French terms immediately, so went on with the passage and returned to fill in the blanks later. In the case of “loucerviers,” an Old French word for “lynxes” that was already archaic in 1597, she did eventually succeed: an ounce is a medium-sized wildcat, such as a lynx or a puma (OED, s.v. “ounce, n.2”). The other three species that Elizabeth singles out, however, are all incorrect translations of the French: for “taissons [hogs],” “chardonneret [goldfinch],” and “coucou [cuckoo]” she gives “wolves,” “ ferritte,” and “ foxe.” We may suspect that Elizabeth gave up on those three French nouns and just filled in the blanks with whatever she could think of, yet it is difficult to believe that, after succeeding with “loucerviers,” she would have had trouble translating “coucou.” Perhaps she felt that hogs were inadequately exotic animals to find in the fabled land of Prester John, and replaced them with wolves for that reason. Care is also evident in that each of these mistranslations respects the spirit of the original text. Like goldfinches and cuckoos, ferrets and foxes are animals that European readers would find familiar. They sound more wild and dangerous, however, and for that reason may have seemed more fun to write about. On balance, then, Elizabeth’s series of mistranslations here deserves to be considered as a thoughtful, intentional revision to the original text.
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I would also suggest a similar explanation for another translation that may seem problematic: Elizabeth’s common practice of rendering “cultivé(e)” as “manured” in contexts where a twenty-first-century reader would expect to see “cultivated.” However, “cultivated” (as opposed to “wild”) was a current meaning of the word “manured” in the late sixteenth century, although it is now obsolete (OED). Whether or not the lands of a given region are under cultivation or left wild is an important distinction throughout L’Epitome, but in choosing “manured” over “cultivated” Elizabeth may also be emphasizing the difference between farmland that is well cared for and that which is not, as when she asserts that “the lande” of Europe is “well manured” (3v). Her choice may also reflect family interests, for the state of local agricultural land was a matter of considerable concern to Elizabeth’s relations. Sir Lawrence Tanfield was several times taken to court (albeit unsuccessfully) for his aggressive approach both to acquiring farmland and to improving its profitability once acquired.38 Profitability was a concern of Lee’s as well; when he was first considering the purchase of Ditchley in 1581, his agent warned him that the soil there was so exhausted “as now is there neither good Arrable nor pasture to be hoped for in a long time.”39 Since Elizabeth was at least sometimes privy to adult conversations, it is quite possible that she knew Lee to be actively concerned with restoring that ill “manured” land, and was influenced in her translation accordingly. Nor does she disregard context, for she successfully distinguishes between “cultivée” meaning “cultivated” (fertilized or tilled) and “cultivée” meaning “cultured.” When faced with L’Epitome’s description of Italy’s “villes magnifiques & bien cultivées” (L’Epitome, 60v), Elizabeth translates the phrase freely and elegantly as “somptuous and magnificent townes” (Mirror, 34r). Although mechanical, word-for-word translations are a common feature of this text, then (and I suspect they are more common in the sections that were not highly interesting to the translator), it is evident that Elizabeth has read her source text with thoughtful and often critical comprehension. In general, her working method appears to have been to approach the text one clause at a time far more often than one word at a time, a strategy which has allowed her in several places to compress the original skillfully and to good effect; consider her rendition of “selon le païs auquel elle affronte & aboutit, aussi selon le langage des circonvoisins [according to the country which it meets and marks the border of, also according to the language or dialect of the neighbours]” (L’Epitome, 76v) as “accordinge to the languages of the neighboure Countries” (Mirror, 42v). Some attempts at compression are more felicitous than others, however,
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and Elizabeth does have a tendency to get muddled in long sentences, as the following illustrates: La riviere Oder y passe parmy, qui prent la source aux montagnes du païs de Boheme, & tombe en la mer Orientale, aupres de la ville de Stetin: & nous semble bien, pour la naturellement bonne situation, beaux edifices, & habitans c’icelle, que c’est une plaisante ville. (L’Epitome, 50v) The river Oder runneth through it wch taketh his heade from the mountaines of Bohemia. and falleth into the Orientall or East sea, by the towne of stetin: & it seemeth unto us for the naturall situacion wch is good faire buildinges, and the inhabitantes thereof that it is very pleasante, and a delectable towne. (Mirror, 28v) As happens here, Elizabeth typically gets into syntactical trouble in the second half of the sentence, after translating the first part of it correctly. Her frequent omission of parentheses (see, for instance, Mirror, 3r; 8v; 24v; 28r) further suggests that she does not always keep good track of larger rhetorical structures while translating. There are also places in the Mirror where Elizabeth omits words, phrases, or – much more rarely – entire passages, but these are the exception rather than the rule. Given the length and complexity of the text Elizabeth has chosen to translate, and given as well the fact that she has translated very close to 100 per cent of the original, I would argue that, if we exclude the passages she omitted from the descriptions of Luxembourg and Hainault (see textual note 180), the otherwise rare omissions here need to be taken seriously as editorial decisions rather than as failures of ability or of will. This is especially so since the choices Elizabeth makes of passages to omit are remarkably consistent with one another, and consistent also with some of the decisions she makes about how to present her material graphically, which I discuss in a later section of this introduction. Overt expressions of national pride appear to make her uncomfortable, for instance, whether the nation is her own or that of Ortelius: the longest passage she omits from her translation (again excluding “Lucembourge” and “Haynault”) is one of approximately eighty-five words, which offers a detailed and admiring description of Ortelius’s home town, Antwerp: Les principales villes sont: ANVERS, situee sur l’Escaut, qui est une ville marchande, telle qu’elle surpasse non seulement toutes les
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villes de l’Alemaigne, mais de toute l’Europe; parquoy Christofle Stella la nomme le Marché du monde. Elle a tousiours esté fort redoubtable à ses ennemis, par ces fortes murailles, rempars, fossez & boulevers, lesquelz sont tellement renforcez, qu’elle est à present inexpugnable. L’Eglise principalle de ceste ville a un clocher de Pierre de taille blanche, de telle hauteur & façon qu’on n’en sçache point d’autre qui le surpasse. Et sa Maison magistrale nouvellement bastie a esté si somptueusement & magnifiquement eslevee selon l’Architecture Vitruvienne, que nulle autre ville aussi n’a le paragon d’icelle. BRUXELLES, ville plaisante & pleine de fontaines vives & faillantes, est de toute ancienneté la Cour de ce Duché. (L’Epitome, 38v) The principall townes are ANWARPE sited upon Escaute, which is a marchante towne, and it passeth not only all the townes of Allmany but of all Europe. BRUSSELLS a pleasaunte towne and full of running water, it is ye Courte of the Duchie[.] (Mirror, 21r) What Elizabeth retains in her translation is coherent and complimentary, but she omits details that affirm mercantile and military strength. The original French passage also attributes to Antwerp a sumptuosity that L’Epitome attributes elsewhere to the towns of Italy (Mirror, 34v) and that Elizabeth may have wished to reserve for their exclusive use. Certainly Antwerp is not the city she is interested in glorifying here.40 Nor is Elizabeth much interested in the skills that are essential to preparing and using these very atlases that have helped make Antwerp famous: mathematics and map-reading. Indeed, these are the two areas in which her errors occur most frequently by far. We have no indication from her biographers that Elizabeth studied mathematics or geometry, the foundational subjects of cartography, and her work in the Mirror strongly suggests that she lacked interest in these areas of study: of what Bernhard Klein calls the three “conceptual stages of the cartographic transfer of world into map,” namely measurement, visualization, and narration, Elizabeth’s heart is clearly with narration.41 For one thing, in her translation of numbers she makes frequent errors of the kind that suggest haste or carelessness rather than incomprehension. Elizabeth certainly can get her numbers right. (See, for instance, “Limaine,” Mirror, 13r.) Nevertheless, numerical errors are very common. In “Valentia,” for instance, Elizabeth gives “400” (Mirror, 9r) as her translation of L’Epitome’s “quatre cents soixante sixe [466]” (12v); she has correctly translated the first two words
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in this phrase, and ignored or overlooked the second two. Similarly, in “Flaunders” Elizabeth translates “mille, cent & quatre [1104]” (L’Epitome, 39v) as “114” (Mirror, 21v). Most likely she has understood the numbers and just omitted the place-holder zero. Furthermore, when she does get the numbers right, she is casual about units of measurement; for instance, she often renders “lieu [league]” as “mile,” without converting the number of leagues into the corresponding number of miles (see, for example, textual note 149.) If distance does not worry Elizabeth, direction worries her even less; indeed, her treatment of geographical or cartographical information throughout the text suggests that she had very little interest in landmarks, borders, or topography. In “Limaine,” for instance, she omits a direction that would be helpful to map readers: L’Epitome tells us how to locate the town of Gergoya on the map, specifying that it is “assis au haut de ceste Carte [located at the top of this Map]” (21v), but this information is not in Elizabeth’s text (Mirror, 13r). Given the fact that her Mirror of the Worlde contains no maps, we might understand this as an appropriate omission of information that would not be useful to her readers. However, more commonly she does offer a translation of such information but muddles it badly. For instance, L’Epitome leads the reader through the bordermarkers of “Guelderlane” in orderly fashion, whereas Elizabeth’s attempt to compress this information is confused and confusing: Jadis les Sicambres (comme escrivent les Autheurs) ont habité en ce païs cy, ayant le païs de Phrise & la Mer appellée Zuyderzee vers le Nort, le païs de Juliers luy sert de liziere vers le Midy & Orient, & le païs de Brabant & Hollande vers l’occident. (L’Epitome, 40v) Heretofore the Sicamber (as all authors write) have inhabited this Countrie of Gelde/r/land, and the sea called Zwiderzee bordereth it Northwarde, South and Easte. And the Country of Brabant West. (Mirror, 22r) Elizabeth’s description of the borders of the “country of Presbiter John” in “Africa” (Mirror, 4v) is a similarly garbled rendition of the original French (L’Epitome, 3v). And in “The Duchie of Oswicz & Zator” she actually moves Poland from the region’s east side to its west (see textual note 414.) It may be that Elizabeth was incapable of reading a map accurately; after all, “map consciousness,” which Peter Barber defines as “the ability to think cartographically and to prepare sketch maps as a means of
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illuminating problems,” was still nascent in Tudor England.42 And Elizabeth’s own intellectual development was just beginning. What is more certain, however, is that she was not greatly interested in being able “to think cartographically” and did not see geographic detail as important. This unconcern is also evident in her use of identical or highly similar names to translate the French names of places that are quite distinct geographically. She calls the Swiss “Swethians,” and she calls Switzerland both “Swetland” and “Swethland” (33v; 41r), but she calls Sweden “Swethland” as well (45v). In this practice she does not follow the example of L’Epitome, which maintains clear distinctions between the two lands; Switzerland is “Le Pais des Suisses,” and its inhabitants “Les Suisses” (59v), whereas Sweden is “le royaume de Suesse” (81v). We also find Elizabeth using similar names for two places that could hardly be more different, or more distant, from one another. For the collection of northern “Iles situate betweene Flaunders Brabante, Holland, and the Sea” (Mirror, 22v) that L’Epitome calls “Zelande” (41v), she writes “Zeland” and “Zelande” (Mirror, 22v); for the Asian island of Ceylon that L’Epitome calls “Zeylan” (1588, 2v) or “Zeyland” (1590, 2v), she gives “Zeiland” (Mirror, 4r). Her casual approach to geography helps explain how long it took her to realize her error in translating “la Mer Mediterranée” as “the sowthe sea,” as described above. For in her description of Africa she twice translates “la Mer Mediterranée” (L’Epitome, 3v) as “the sowthe [or southe] sea” (Mirror, 4v), but she also translates “la Mer Meridionale,” location of “Cabo de buona sperança [Cape of Good Hope]” (L’Epitome, 3v), as “the Southe Sea” on the very same page (Mirror, 4v). With geography then as with syntax, Elizabeth sometimes loses sight of the big picture. Since gently bred twelve-year-old Elizabethan females had little expectation of travel, we may feel some sympathy for this one’s evident lack of interest in knowing just how far and in which direction were the foreign lands whose cultures she nevertheless found deeply interesting. But Elizabeth’s habit of obscuring the details that enhance an atlas’s practical usefulness suggests more than lack of interest; it suggests an active resistance to the mercantile and military applications to which maps were so often put. In describing “Tercera,” for instance, Elizabeth softens the suggestion that someone might wish to invade the island by omitting the last part of the sentence describing its coastline. L’Epitome tells us explicitly that the island would be difficult to attack: “Ses costes sont pour la plus part fort dangereuses & perilleuses à gaigner, pour estre pleines de rochers & n’avoir gueres de ports qui soyent propres à surgir & aborder [Its coasts are for the most part very dangerous and perilous to reach, because they
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are full of rocks and have few ports that are suitable to set out from and to land at or attack]” (8v). In sixteenth-century French, “aborder” could mean “to attack” as well as “to land”; Elizabeth avoids translating it entirely, writing only that “[t]he havens be for the moste parte perilous to come unto because they be full of rockes” (“Tercera,” Mirror, 7r). Elizabeth even has difficulty translating the word “forteresses” on more than one occasion. She omits the word entirely from her translations of L’Epitome’s descriptions of “Les Pais Bas” (32v) and “la ville de Brunecke” (58v), and in her description of Artois she mistranslates “forteresses” (L’Epitome, 36v) as “Forrests” (Mirror, 20r). Whether conscious or not, such frequent instances of resistance to the discourse of military aggression and defense strongly suggest that Elizabeth would be describing a more peaceable landscape than the one L’Epitome presented to her imagination. Elizabeth came to maturity at a time when maps and chorographies were becoming increasingly valued by those who held power or who sought it, whether at home or abroad. Lord Burghley, as is well known, used his two customized atlases for both military and administrative purposes: with their aid he could “follow the campaigns in, and colonisation of, Ireland, the wars in Normandy and the hold of recusancy in Lancashire.”43 Some of Burghley’s maps were produced at his particular request: most famously, he commissioned the work that led to the production of the Saxton atlas of England, a point to which I will return in the third part of this introduction. Indeed, he commissioned maps of Ireland with such frequency that, as J.H. Andrews notes, his “requests for new maps were a continuing source of trouble for the royal officials in Dublin.”44 The value that maps had for Burghley is also evident from his copious annotations. “Many of his notes, as we would expect, refer to defence,” says P.D.A. Harvey. “Far more, however, are names of local gentry,” such as his “list of ‘Names of ye principall lordships in ye Middle march with the Lordes names’ on a map of Northumberland.”45 Andrews cites the “many … names added in Burghley’s own hand” of Irish “territorial lords” as evidence that “one of the chief uses of his collection was as a geographical index to the government’s friends and enemies.”46 Similar lists of English notables included the “names of Catholic recusants entered by their homes on the map.”47 In one sense such lists turned Burghley’s maps into portable versions of the murals that decorated his home at Theobalds, murals which “included a map of England and the family trees of the leading houses in each county as well as heraldic devices of the nobility. It was fine and fashionable decoration,” as B.W. Beckingsale comments, “but for Burghley it was a directory of the ruling class.”48 Such directories and such maps, constructed in the service of power, were hardly apolitical.
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By the end of the sixteenth century, map consciousness had spread from the ruling elite to men of the gentry and merchant classes, and for the sons of these classes the study of cartography, both at home with their tutors and away at university, was rapidly growing in importance.49 As a landowner, the litigious and canny Lawrence Tanfield belonged to a group for whom the science of surveying was fast becoming indispensable;50 as a lawyer, he belonged to one of the most map-conscious groups of men in England in his day.51 It is by no means clear, however, whether a study of cartography would have entirely suited either the goals he had for his daughter or the goals she had for herself. Cartography was understood at the time as a masculine domain. As Lesley B. Cormack has shown, “[l]arge numbers of young men destined to be part of the governing elite began to converge on the English universities just as the English were searching for an identity independent of the Roman Church and focused on the autonomy and superiority of England … Geography supplied these men with belief in their own inherent superiority and their ability to control the world they now understood.”52 Furthermore, these same young men were quite likely to have been set to study geography as boys; this is evidenced in part by the popularity and influence of Sir Thomas Elyot’s Boke Named the Governour (first published in 1531), a work which “Shakespeare … seems to have known and used,” and which “was purchased by the tutors of James VI of Scotland … as one of the books for him to study.”53 In his Boke, Elyot paints a vivid picture of the advantages that skill in map-reading and map-making could offer to future landowners, soldiers, and civil servants: at home, he argues, a man should, “in visiting his owne dominions … set them out in figure, in such wise, that at his eye shall appeare to him, wher he shal employ his study and treasure.”54 Elyot is even more enthusiastic about the importance of related skills when striving to expand one’s dominions: “Also by the feate of portraiture or paynting, a Captaine may discrive the country of his adversary, where-by he shall eschue the daungerous passages with his hoast or Navye; also perceive the places of advauntage, the form of embattayling of his enemyes, the situacion of his campe, for his most suretie, the strength or weaknesse of the town or fortresse which he intendeth to assault.”55 By such study a young man might grow up to be the next Burghley, or so his father was encouraged to hope. Elizabeth Tanfield, however, was not raised to undertake such overseeing or such assaults. Nor does Elyot expect girls to be interested in this sort of thing; in fact, there is no room for girls in his ideal schoolroom. His explicit purpose is to advise parents on “the education or forme of bringing up of the childe of a Gentelman, which is to have authoritie in
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a publike weale,”56 and he advises that in order to accomplish this education, “After a childe is come to seven yeares of age, I holde it expedient, that he be taken from the company of women.”57 For comparison with Elyot, we may turn to Juan Luis Vives’s Instruction of a Christian Woman (first published in Latin in 1524 but frequently reprinted in its English translation). We may not be surprised that Vives does not mention cartography, either to endorse or condemn it, for at the time of writing maps and map-reading were not yet as common or as highly valued as they were soon to become. However, Vives’s Preface, addressed to Queen Katherine, expresses an educational principle consistent with Elyot’s: “though the precepts for men be innumerable: women yet may be infourmed with few words. For men must bee occupied both at home & abroad, both in their owne matters and for the common weale … As for a woman shee hath no charge to see too, but her honesty and chastitie.”58 We do know of another girl close to Elizabeth’s age who studied geography, but that is Lady Anne Clifford (1590–1676), who is not exactly representative of her generation; even if she and Elizabeth were reading the same books, they may well have read them with very different purposes. According to the Great Picture that Lady Anne commissioned in 1646, among the many books that she studied in her youth were William Camden’s Britannia and Abraham Ortelius’s “Maps of the World.”59 But Lady Anne’s only surviving brother died when she was one year old, and thenceforward her indomitable mother prepared her for the day when she would take over, in her own right, all the lands and titles then possessed by her father, George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland. A masculine style of education may well have been considered suitable for a girl unusually destined to “be occupied” both in her “own matters and for the common weale.” Government was not, however, the only use to which maps could be put; in Tudor England, map books were expected to be interesting as well as practical. Elyot himself affirms that “Cosmography” (a term which includes representation of the earth as well as of the heavens) is “both pleasaunt and necessary,” and he appears to have considered verbal descriptions to be a valuable source of the pleasure he promises.60 In fact, he waxes almost lyrical on the “in explicable delectation”61 that the study of cartographical texts may afford: “For what pleasure is it, in one houre to beholde those realmes, cities, seas, ryvers and fountaines, that uneth in an olde mans life can not be journeyed: what incredible dilight is taken in beholdinge the dyversities of people, beastes, foules, fyshes, trees, fruites, and herbes. To knowe the sundry manners and condition of people, and the varietie of their natures, and that in a warme studye or parloure, without peril of the sea, or daunger of long and painefull journeyes: I can-not
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tell, what more pleasure shoulde happen to a gentle wit, then to behold in his owne house everye thing that with-in all the worlde is conteyned.”62 This description of the map-reading experience implies that the delectable maps Elyot has in mind are – much as they are in Ortelius – accompanied by at least equally delectable textual descriptions. That Elizabeth’s wit found pleasure in her reading of Ortelius’s descriptions of “the sundry manners and condition of people” is evident in the many signs of active engagement with her material, which this edition as a whole is designed to document. Nevertheless, even while celebrating its pleasures, her translation resists or subverts the practical use value of cartography. We may infer from Elyot that those lads privileged to be educated after his plan must, upon maturity, turn their attention from the imaginative pleasures of youth to the pragmatic businesses of government and investment. These, however, were never to be any of Elizabeth’s business, and in early modern England social position had much to do with people’s attitude towards cartography. One map-maker, “Bartlett, [was] beheaded by the natives [of Ireland] before finishing [his map of] Donegal,”63 and in England itself, “[m]istrust of geometry” was “a sentiment … widespread among tenants” of landlords who themselves embraced the new mathematical art of surveying.64 As a daughter and then as a wife, Elizabeth could expect always to be subject to someone else’s power over the physical, social, and economic space she inhabited: a position not unlike that of her father’s tenants. It should not surprise us, then, to find just what we do in Elizabeth’s Mirror: much more careful attention paid to the cultural and historical information in the map descriptions, which offers intellectual profit, than to such cartographic details as are only necessary for material profit. Knowing that there exists a wide variety of different places with diverse laws, customs, and languages was important to Elizabeth, without a doubt; knowing exactly where each is located was, I would suggest, in her view inappropriate, unimportant, and possibly even dangerous.
“Trained up in Politique Manners”: Elaboration, Paraphrase, and Other Departures from the Literal I have been arguing throughout this introduction that Elizabeth’s own interests and priorities, as well as what she understood of her intended readers’ interests and priorities, significantly influenced her work as a translator. Some of the most obvious evidence that this is the case may be found in her most non-literal translations, which include instances of both paraphrase and elaboration. In some cases, the reason for a non-
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literal translation seems self-evident, as in Elizabeth’s handling of the phrase “les mariniers de nostres païs de Flandres [the mariners of our land of Flanders]” (“Cadiz,” L’Epitome, 13v), which she renders as the more neutral “the mariners of Flanders” (“Cadis,” Mirror, 9v). Nevertheless, even in this simple change Elizabeth shows that her goal is to shape the text for its particular audience, and not to produce a mechanically literal translation. Elizabeth also does pretty well by her English readers when it comes to measuring money, even though numbers are not generally her strength, as we have seen. For instance, whereas L’Epitome explains the value of 200 marks in Ditmars by pointing out that “un marc vaut seize patars de Brabant [one marc is worth sixteen patars of Brabant]” (45v), Elizabeth explains that 200 marks “is 13 shillinges 8 pence of English money” (Mirror, 25v). Other paraphrases are more subtle, but many of these also indicate sensitivity to the values of Elizabeth’s intended audience as does, for instance, her depiction of the inhabitants of Normandy. L’Epitome characterizes them as crafty lawyers: “ils sont tous fins & rusez, sçavants au possible en proces & plaideries” (18v). Although “fins & rusez” describes a sharp cunning that is possibly malignant (see textual note 106), Elizabeth chooses much more complimentary language for her translation: “they have all good witts, and they be very well learned in process & pleadinge” (Mirror, 11v). Such learning as this would be impressive to the daughter of a canny and successful lawyer, and she shows wit herself in choosing not to insult members of that profession in her text. She shows even more tact and subtlety in dealing with matters of religion. Sometimes she just omits the problematic passage, as she does in her translation of L’Epitome’s description of China: Quant à la religion, ils croyent que toutes choses creées, & le gouvernement d’icelles dependent d’enhaut, & du Ciel, qu’ils croyent ester le plus grand de tous les dieux. Ils adorent le Soleil & la Lune, & les estoilles; voire aussi le diable; à fin qu’il ne leur apporte quelques maux, comme ils disent. (L’Epitome, 84v) As from religion they beleeve that all thinges created and the goverment of them dependeth of heaven, wch they thinke is the greatess of all the gods. (Mirror, 47r) Lack of space cannot explain her decision to omit the final sentence; Elizabeth had lots of room left on the page. She may, of course, simply have been in a rush. She was nearing the end of her project by this point,
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after all. But she may also have felt either personally uncomfortable with such heresy, or unwilling to offend her audience. Elizabeth also demonstrates sensitivity to specifically Calvinist concerns in her description of the “Holy Lande” (49v). According to L’Epitome, this is the land that “Dieu avoit eslevë d’entre toutes autres regions” (88v); a literal translation of “eslevë” would be “elevated,” or perhaps “exalted.” Instead, Elizabeth uses Calvinist discourse to describe “The Holy Lande” as “that whch god haith elected and chosen out among all other regions” (Mirror, 49v, emphasis added). In contrast to Elizabeth’s politic deployment of Calvinist discourse in such passages, however, we may note a more subtle indication of disapproval for anti-Catholic action in her description of “Westphalia.” According to L’Epitome, Munster “estant prise des Anabaptistes l’an 1533. fut par eux fort endommagée, ils en chasserent les habitants” (44v). Given the verb “chasserent,” an obvious choice for the translator would be to say that the Anabaptists “chased” or “drove” the inhabitants from Munster. Yet Elizabeth chooses a verb with more violent connotations: “This Citie being taken by the Anabaptistes the yeare 1533. it was by them very much endamaged[;] they hurled out the inhabitantes” (Mirror, 25r, emphasis added). Her decision in this case may be taken to indicate disapproval of the Anabaptists’ doings and sympathy for their Catholic opponents (or, in this case, victims).65 However, this disapproval would not be evident to any reader who did not compare Elizabeth’s English with the original. Consistently, then, we find the young translator practising a balancing act which could be said to characterize her adult life: respecting the authority of those whom she believed herself legally and morally bound to honour and obey, while finding ways strategically to oppose or distance herself from them, particularly in matters of religious affiliation. In this regard, we may recall her treatment of Italy: according to L’Epitome, Italy “de son sçavoir & doctrine l[e monde]’a enseigné & policé de bonnes meurs, loix, & coustumes” (60v), whereas according to Elizabeth, the world has “by her [Italy’s] learning and doctrine … bene instructed and trained up in politique manners, lawes and customes” (Mirror, 34r). Here Elizabeth explicitly asserts her awareness of a principle to which she demonstrates a precocious sensitivity throughout the manuscript: for manners to be “bonnes [good],” they must also be “politique.” I would even suggest that there is something “politique” about the fact that Elizabeth has allowed one page of her manuscript to be sullied by ink blots. In “The Empire of Russia or Moscovia,” Elizabeth has an unusual degree of trouble with her pen just where she has to translate this passage:
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Ils ne se ceignent point sur le ventre, mais au dessus des hanches, descendant la ceinture droitement par dessus les parties honteuses … (L’Epitome, 82v) They are not girte upon their bellies but under their hams[,] the girdle descending straite und?? their /bellys/ … (Mirror, 46r) There is a simple mistranslation here of “dessus [above],” which can easily be confused with “dessous [under].” What is more interesting, however, is that Elizabeth has written the word “bellys” outside the left margin of her text, settling after some struggle upon an imprecise translation that is apparently her third attempt to translate “parties honteuses [shameful parts].” Her first two attempts to translate this phrase are completely obscured by inkblots. Earlier in the same sentence she has used “bellies” to translate “ventre,” and it seems unlikely that the same English term would have been her first choice here. Could the two inkblots be deliberate? Perhaps Elizabeth turned reluctantly to the euphemistic “bellys” after trying out one or two other more literal translations and deciding against them. Once again, what seems like carelessness may well have been quite strategic: better to blot the page than to blot her reputation for modesty by being seen to understand too much. This is not, however, to suggest that young Elizabeth necessarily considered her female parts to be shameful. In fact, one of her most significant departures from the literal in the Mirror of the Worlde draws attention specifically to women’s shameful parts, while identifying them with highly honourable traits. Elizabeth translates L’Epitome’s description of Europeans as follows: Les habitants de ceste partie ont tousiours passé les autres nations en subtilité d’entendement & dexterité de corps, par lesquels moyens ils ont jadis subjugué quasi tout le monde … (L’Epitome, 1r) The inhabitants of this contrie excell in pregnancy of understanding, and activity of body, by which meanes they allready have allmost subdued the whole worlde … (Mirror, 3v, original italics). In choosing “pregnancy of understanding” to translate “subtilité d’entendement,” Elizabeth demonstrates the fertility of her own imagination by boldly employing the discourse of the female body to describe a power-
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ful intellect, an association she draws to our attention by writing “pregnancy” in a different style of lettering from the rest of the text. At the same time, she avoids the Machiavellian overtones of the more obvious option, “subtlety.” Furthermore, “pregnancy of understanding” strikes me as a fitting description for one European in particular: the young prodigy Elizabeth herself. Not only does the phrase refer to quickness and inventiveness of mind, but by the end of the sixteenth century it had also come to be used to refer more specifically to the intellectual potential of the young. The Mirror only slightly predates the earliest recorded use of the term in this newer sense, which according to the OED was in 1599; it seems possible, then, that Elizabeth intended to suggest this meaning as well as the more literal one. If so, her choice of this term constitutes yet another first for her manuscript. In any case, this early move to associate intelligence with the female body is just one of many occasions Elizabeth finds to affirm and honour women, even as she labours over a text from the world of men. Some of her most overtly editorial interventions occur in passages that focus on strong women, as in this description of Edinburgh Castle: La principale ville d’Escosse est Edinbourg, & a le chasteau surnommé aux Pucelles; grandement estimé de plusieurs autheurs. [The principal city of Scotland is Edinburgh, and it has the castle surnamed “of Virgins”; highly esteemed by many authors.] (L’Epitome, 6v) The principall towne of Scotlande is Edenbrough and here is the castell surnamed by many authors: OFF MAYDES GREATLY ESTEEMED. (Mirror, 6r) “Pucelles” means “virgins.” Edinburgh Castle had been called “Castrum Puellarum (‘Castle of Maidens’ or ‘Maidens’ Castle’)” since the twelfth century;66 Camden (a close friend of Ortelius and a likely source of Ortelius’s information on Scotland) describes the castle as impregnable, but ascribes the name “The Maidens Castle” or “the Virgins Castle” not to this feature but to the story that “certaine young maidens of the Picts roiall bloud … were kept there in old time.”67 The notion that these or any other maids held the castle in great esteem appears original to Elizabeth. Has she simply misread the French? Her syntax is ambiguous; she may have struggled with the translation. Yet the original French does not seem that difficult. Given Elizabeth’s relative carelessness with punctuation, we
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should not ascribe too much weight to her use of the colon, but her use of majuscules is clearly intentional, and its primary effect, significantly, is to transfer to “maydes” like Elizabeth herself the active role of passing judgement that L’Epitome gives to “autheurs.”68 The majuscules also make unmistakeable Elizabeth’s own high estimation of this castle that honours – or is honoured by – “pucelles.” Another opportunity to praise women that Elizabeth makes the most of is offered by L’Epitome’s description of Deborah: “dame Juifue tressage” (L’Epitome, 15v). Her translation is twice the length of the original phrase: “Jeweish Ladie endowed w th gravitie and wisdome” (“Gascoine,” Mirror, 10v). I further note that this same phrase could well be used to describe Mariam, the protagonist of the play that Elizabeth was to write in just a few more years. The possibility that a woman could be highly esteemed for virtue, understanding, and wisdom is well recognized as a concern of Cary’s later works, and we see here that it is one the young Elizabeth is already keen to explore and affirm. Other topics central to Mariam in which Elizabeth’s treatment of L’Epitome shows her to be already greatly interested include the terrifying suddenness with which fortunes may be reversed, the fear of disorder, the effects of tyranny within nations and within families, and the possibility of that tyranny’s being mitigated. In one of her last descriptions, Elizabeth translates this sombre reflection on the fate of the once prosperous Carthage: Ceste Carthage est un vray mirouër de l’incertitude & inconstance des Seigneuries & gouvernements de ce monde: ou, pour mieux dire, une vraye derision des hommes mondains, qui en vain s’appuyent & fient sur les choses humaines, pour belles, fortes, nobles & magnifiques qu’elles soyent: car il y vient tousiours quelque demain, qui renverse le tout c’en dessus dessous. (L’Epitome, 91v) this Carthage is a treue mirour of the inconstancy of the Lordshippes, and govermentes of this worlde or to saie better a derision of men who repose truste and affiance vainely in humaine thinges, howe faire, stronge, noble pleasante, & magnificente soever they bee, for alwaies there cometh a daie to tourne all topsy turvy. (Mirror, 52r) Elizabeth’s translation does full justice to the tragic vision of the original. Furthermore, its very language anticipates Mariam: “to tourne all topsy
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turvy” is more than a pithy rendition of the French, “qui renverse le tout c’en dessus dessous” (91v). It is a phrase that Constabarus will echo in his bitter complaint to Salome about her plan to divorce him: “Suffer this and then / Let all the world be topsy-turvèd quite” (Mariam, 1.6.423b–24). Of course, it is nothing new to argue that Cary’s sympathies are as much with Salome as with Constabarus, and again we find in her Mirror early evidence of a strong concern with the high cost of a good reputation. In “The Empire of Russia or Moscovia” Elizabeth describes how “The woemen” of that land “leade a very unpleasant life, for she is not accounted an honest woman unlesse she never goe out of her house, no not once” (Mirror, 46r). L’Epitome describes the life these women lead as “povre [poor]” (82v); by choosing the unequivocally negative “unpleasant” to translate this term, Elizabeth adds her own disapproval. Just what makes such a life “unpleasant” will be the subject of her Tragedy of Mariam, in which Cary examines the psychological suffering of a tragic heroine who observes that her husband, “by barring me from liberty, / To shun my ranging, taught me first to range” (1.1.25–6). Mariam also examines the options available to women who, like both Salome and Mariam, find themselves barred from liberty, and again in Elizabeth’s Mirror we find our young translator beginning to imagine some of the possibilities that she will explore more fully in her mature work. This description of Greek women in general, and of their role at funerals in particular, is the longest passage in L’Epitome to focus on women, and Elizabeth’s significant elaboration on the original French makes it even longer: Les femmes n’assistent point à leurs banquets, & n’y sont point presentes, quand ils boivent & mangent en compagnie. Mais elles observent aussi l’ancienne coustume de pleurer les morts, ce qui se faict ainsi: Quand quelqu’un est trespassé, elles s’assemblent en un certain lieu assigné, & dés le fin matin avant le jour elles commencent à hurler, se battant la poictrine, s’esgratignant les jouës, & s’arrachant les cheveux; que s’est grande pitié de les voir. (L’Epitome, 73v) Woemen come not to their banquetts, they are likewise absente at any eating or drinkinge before company. But they likewyse observe their aunciente custom of mourninge for the deade. In this order it is done. When any one deceaseth they assemble themselves in a certaine deputed place, and in the mourninge before daie they
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begin to roare, beate theire brestes, scratt their cheekes, and teare their haire, so that it wold mollyfie a harte of flinte or Adamante, and make it relente and melte with watry teares in pittying them. (Mirror, 40v) L’Epitome simply asserts that these mourning women evoke a “grande pitié” in their audience. Elizabeth, however, in one of the freer translations we may find in her text, imagines in vivid detail just what effect a woman’s grief might have on her audience. Clearly she is already very interested in examining the conditions under which a hard heart may be softened, another interest that she pursues in Mariam. In fact, although some of the other characters (Salome and Alexandra most notably) never do show pity for Mariam, and although Mariam herself shows a self-restraining dignity at her own death that is the opposite of the “mourninge” Elizabeth describes so vividly in her Mirror, the possibility that a woman’s response to death may affect her audience is a main topic of Act 5 of The Tragedy of Mariam. Through her depictions of Mariam herself, of Mariam’s husband and executioner King Herod, and of Mariam’s betrayer, the Butler, Cary affirms in the closing act of her original drama the same possibility that she found affirmed in L’Epitome and embraced in her translation: that a suffering woman’s behaviour can have a transformative effect on those who witness it.
“Never any Peere”: The Translator as Poet One who was already claiming to have been affected by young Elizabeth’s language was Drayton, who, as I pointed out in the first part of this introduction, wrote admiringly of her skill with languages, even predicting that she would become another one of England’s “Muses” (EHE, 43v). We cannot know what exercises in the poet’s craft Drayton may have seen that have since been lost, but Elizabeth’s Mirror alone shows that Drayton’s flattery had a basis in fact, as it contains considerable evidence of both her poetic talent and her commitment to developing it. For despite what some may consider the dry, factual nature of her source, Elizabeth finds in L’Epitome opportunities to demonstrate her familiarity with poetic diction and to exercise her skill with such stylistic embellishments as alliteration, metre, and rhyme. To anyone who compares this work with its French source, Elizabeth’s very first sentence alerts us to an active, original, authorial presence. All
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editions of Ortelius begin with a map of the entire world, and L’Epitome’s first map description begins in this way: “Ceste Carte represente toute la Terre avec la Mer, ainsi qu’elle l’environne & traverse” (8v). James Shawe’s English edition begins as follows: “In this mappe is expressed the whole terrestial [sic] globe.”69 How much more colloquial and vivid Elizabeth’s rendition appears beside it: “This table sheweth the figure of the earthe and the sea with every crooke and angle” (Mirror, 3r). This is much more concrete than the original, and it also shifts the emphasis from the sea (the subject of the verbs “environne & traverse”) to the shape of the land (“every crooke and angle”). Another subtle departure from the stylistic straight and narrow occurs later in the same opening passage, which describes the geography of the Middle East. Whereas L’Epitome has “annexée à l’Europe … joincte à l’Afrique” (viii verso), Elizabeth reverses the verbs, writing “joined to Europa, and … annexed to Africa” (3r). This reversal does not alter the meaning of the original, but the alliterative “annexed to Africa” that results is arguably a stylistic improvement. In any case, the amendment demonstrates Elizabeth’s ongoing experimentation with strategies that allow some creative control without compromising accuracy too much. Nor is this the only place where the young translator shows herself to be a poet in training. In “Saxony,” for instance, she translates the relatively straightforward noun phrase “un ruisseau d’eau vive [a stream of sparkling water]” (L’Epitome, 47v) as “a fair river of Argentine Christalline water” (Mirror, 26v), providing three adjectives where the original French has only one. “Crystalline” as an adjective used to describe streams and fountains is standard poetic diction for the period; furthermore, it is one favoured by Drayton. He uses “crystalline” or “crystal” to describe water several times, for instance, in the early books of Poly-Olbion, beginning with his epistle “To The Generall Reader” in which he promises “Crystalline streames” (fol. A 1r). Similarly, the Second Song features a “crystall fountaine” (2.167), while the Third Song features “two crystall Floods” (3.67). By choosing this particular embellishment, then, Elizabeth may be performing respect for Michael Drayton’s muse. That she herself aspires to poetry is, however, most obvious in the changes she makes that focus on language for its own sake, for the pleasures that sound and metre give. L’Epitome contains three aphoristic rhyming couplets (two in French, one in Italian), and Elizabeth translates none of them literally, choosing instead to challenge herself by producing a heroic couplet in English each time:
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Il n’est pays si riche, que la sans pair Austriche. (L’Epitome, 51v, original italics) There is no Countrie /sure/ in riches nere / to Austrich which had never /any/ peere. (Mirror, 29r) S’on ne cueilloit de Stutgard le raisin, la ville iroit se noyer dans le vin. (L’Epitome, 57v, original italics) weare stutgard grapes not gathered from the vine; the towne would neare be drowned in the wine. (Mirror, 32v, original italics) Toutes sortes d’arts & manœuvres florissent tellement en ceste ville, que c’est chose incroyable; & de là est venue le Proverbe Italian, Qui volesse rassettare Italia si roina Milano. (L’Epitome, 62v, original italics) All sortes of Artes and Trades flourish in this towne that it is an incredible thing and therfore this Italian Proverbe was made Qui volesse rassettare Italia si roina Milano Thus in English. Who would againe set up faire Italy, must ruine sumptuous Milan totally. (Mirror, 35r, original italics) In this last example, Elizabeth quotes the Italian proverb in its original language, just as L’Epitome does, but then goes one step further by tackling the Italian, which L’Epitome does not. Her effort is a bit cryptic, but so is the Italian original; all in all, her English couplets are impressively successful at capturing the sense of the original while rendering it in rhyming iambic pentameter. The first of the three couplets even contains a slash that Elizabeth has added to separate the lines of verse, indicating her understanding of the conventions and her desire to make unmistakable the genre of her original couplet. Of the three couplets this one is also especially informative, for the manuscript at this point shows an unusual number of traces of Elizabeth’s compositional process, during which words have been crossed out, reinserted, and inserted along the way to the final product. Elizabeth has added “sure” in the margin, doubtless to perfect the metre of the passage, for it is not necessary to the sense. Since she also crossed out the word “any,” only to reinsert it above the line, we may reconstruct three different versions of the couplet: a first
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draft of uneven metre, “There is no Countrie in riches nere / to Austrich which had never any peere,” a revision in near-perfect iambic tetrameter (marred only by an extra unstressed syllable), “There is no Countrie in riches nere / to Austrich which had never peere,” and a final revision in iambic pentameter, “There is no Countrie sure in riches nere / to Austrich which had never any peere.” After this, her commitment to pentameter seems total. The future author of verse tragedy is definitely affirming and developing her craft.
1 The Translator in the Priory: Influences and Contexts 2 In the first part of this introduction, I argued that Elizabeth’s choice of title suggests a familiarity with the atlas genre. On this point the evidence is not conclusive: we cannot be certain that Elizabeth’s knowledge of Ortelius extended beyond the single example that she has here made the subject of her attention. She does not record, in her dedication or elsewhere, what her reasons were for choosing L’Epitome as the text to translate for her uncle, or even whether the reasons were her own; it is possible that the project was initiated by Lee himself, by one of her parents, or by her tutor if she had one. We can be confident that the project was, at least, approved by her parents. The gift was intended to honour Lady Tanfield’s uncle, after all, and it is unlikely that the conspicuous consumption of such valuable commodities as the ink, paper, parchment, and gold leaf necessary to complete such an attractive and substantial product could have escaped the notice of the famously frugal and grasping Lady Tanfield.70 In any case, wherever the initial idea came from, Elizabeth’s biography portrays a strong-minded young learner who could not easily be made to study something she did not care for; and the dedication necessary to complete such an ambitious project as this would require deep interest and strong commitment from the translator. Furthermore, the work itself provides evidence of her personal investment in it, for Elizabeth’s treatment of her material proves her to be a far from passive transmitter of information. We have already seen this to be the case in her choice of title as well as in her translation of the text itself. Other creative elements of her manuscript include her dedication to her uncle and her use of graphic-design elements; these are also the marks of a translator who despite her youth was confident in her skill, took a strong position on many of the subjects L’Epitome addresses, and yet was also sensitive to the need to negotiate her position within the various communities represented by her potential
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readers. In the Mirror, I believe we meet a younger version of the teenage author of Mariam whom Nancy A. Guttierez describes as “a very intelligent, highly intellectual young woman, well-read, and cognizant of her social group’s literary interests as well as sensitive to the social obligations expected of an aristocrat’s wife.”71 For despite the trend among biographers to represent young Elizabeth Tanfield as an isolated autodidact, her Mirror is very much the product of one who understands herself to be a reader and writer among other readers and writers, and who is concerned to understand her identity in terms of her relationship to other individuals and other communities. These include communities united by family ties, scholarly interests, national identity, and religion.
“A Thinge Beste Awnswerable to Your Moste Noble Disposition”: Elizabeth Tanfield’s Education and Sir Henry Lee The one part of Elizabeth’s text that is not, nor pretends to be, a translation is her dedication to Lee, so its contents consequently have a distinctive claim on our attention. Like most early modern dedications, it is at once a performance of grateful deference and a subtle assertion of competence: Receive here honorable Sir my humble presente, the fruites and endevours of my younge and tender yeares, an acknowledgemente of my bounden duty to you[.] for thoughe I can no way sufficiently expresse my gratefullnes for many your great favours nor presente to you any thinge worthy of your selfe yet give mee leave I humbly beseeche you to presente to you this little treatise, the viewe of the whole worlde[,] as a thinge beste awnswerable to your moste noble disposition, leavinge to your considerate judgemente & wise regarde the controule of what is herein amisse to be reformed by the experience of your many yeares travailes abroade in the worlde. And as riper yeares shall afforde mee better fruites with greater judgement I shall be ever ready to present you with the best of my travailes. (Mirror, 2r) The first sentence announces explicitly the purpose this work of translation is intended to fill: it is the product and proof of Elizabeth’s education, “the fruites and endevours of” her “younge and tender yeares.” It is also “an acknowledgemente” of the debt of gratitude that Elizabeth owes
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to Lee. For these two purposes, her tone is quite appropriate: Elizabeth modestly calls her Mirror a “humble presente,” a designation that emphasizes her youth without making any claims for her accomplishment, credits the decision to preserve and present this product of her pen to a sense of “duty” rather than a sense of pride, and contrasts her own lack with her uncle’s “judgemente & wise regarde.” Nevertheless, Elizabeth’s play on words does hint at a degree of writerly pride when she compares her uncle’s “many yeares travailes abroade in the worlde” with her own present and future scholarly “travailes.” We may even read resentment or competition in the contrast to which this quibble draws our attention: Lee, with his masculine privilege of liberty, is a traveller, whereas she, a confined young female translator, is a labourer. Yet this wordplay also suggests that uncle’s and niece’s different “travailes” may turn out after all to mean the same: her “travailes” over book and pen may in time gain her as much “judgemente” as his “travailes” over Europe have brought to him. Despite such traces of ambition or resentment, there is no question that gratitude and respect are the main themes of this dedication, and that is as it must be; the strongest evidence of good judgment that Elizabeth can offer here is a demonstrable mastery of the dedication genre. Furthermore, by joining a performance of dutiful obedience to her self-representation as a young student, Elizabeth’s dedication helps her locate the Mirror as a whole within a much more specific genre: that of the work of translation presented as a gift by an adolescent girl to a significant mentor. As is well recognized, the thorough humanist education provided to the daughters of Henry VIII served throughout the second half of the sixteenth century as examples for daughters of aristocratic Tudor households. Women who benefited from this educational fashion included such luminaries as the Seymour sisters (Ladies Ann, Margaret, and Jane Seymour); the Cooke sisters (Mildred, Anne, Elizabeth, and Katherine Cooke); Lady Jane Lumley, who while still a teenager translated Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis as a gift for her father, Lord Arundel;72 and Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, whose translation of Robert Garnier’s Senecan tragedy Antonius (translated in 1590, first published in 1592) had a significant influence on the development of the English history play, including those by Shakespeare and Elizabeth Cary’s own Tragedy of Mariam.73 As Brenda Hosington argues, translation was an important field of endeavour for both men and women writers of the English Renaissance, and should by no means be considered an especially “feminine” genre.74 Nevertheless, for women it often provided what Patricia Demers aptly describes as a safe “entry into the medium of manuscript or print circulation.”75 And by the time
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Elizabeth came to begin this translation project, the English publishing industry had produced many translations, by women as well as by men, that could have served for her as models. Especially relevant as exemplary texts in this case, I would suggest, are those products of that point in a writer’s development when she may for the first time test her readiness for “entry into … circulation.” Although we should not attach an anachronistic importance to publication per se, publication did greatly increase the possibility that Elizabeth would have known of such projects as Margaret More Roper’s translation of Erasmus’s Commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer, written when she was nineteen and published in 1524, and Elizabeth Tudor’s translation from the French of Marguerite de Navarre’s devotional text, Le Miroir de l’Âme Pecheresse (1531), begun and completed when Princess Elizabeth was only eleven years old. This translation, published under the title A Godly Medytacyon, was printed five times between 1548 and 1590;76 it is quite possible that Elizabeth Tanfield read it, and – given the intellectual and religious environment in which she was raised – almost impossible for her not to have heard of it.77 Yet despite its many incarnations in print, Elizabeth Tudor’s Godly Medytacyon, much like Elizabeth Tanfield’s Mirror, began life as a carefully and beautifully bound manuscript, a singular and attractive material object.78 In this as in several other points Elizabeth Tanfield’s project resembles Elizabeth Tudor’s; both Medytacyon and Mirror are translations from French into English undertaken at the age of eleven or twelve, and both were presented as attractive gifts to significant and closely related adults: Queen Katherine Parr in the first case and Sir Henry Lee in the second. In undertaking her translation, then, Elizabeth Tanfield could be confident that she was imitating the most respectable of role models. Furthermore, we may also read her choice of title as a bid for respectability, despite its subtext of Catholic sympathy. For one thing, calling her project a “mirror” even more closely aligns her work with that of the exemplary princess, now queen. Although Elizabeth Tudor does not use the word “mirror” in her actual title, instead calling her translation a “medytacyon,” the Miroir de L’Âme Pecheresse (published in 1531 and republished in 1547 and 1558 as part of the Marguerites de la Marguerite des Princesses) was itself a fairly well-known text, and well-regarded among Protestants, though it “provoked the censure of the Sorbonne theologians for its expression of ideas associated with the religious reform movement.”79 By using the key term “mirror” in her title, furthermore, Elizabeth Tanfield invokes an entire genre of exemplary texts: devotional texts and conduct literature such
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as Robert Greene’s Myrrour of Modestie (1584), Thomas Salter’s Mirrhor Mete for all Mothers, Matrones, and Maidens, Intituled the Mirrhor of Modestie (1579), and Thomas Bentley’s Sixt Lampe of Virginitie Conteining a Mirrour for Maidens and Matrons (1582).80 Thus Elizabeth’s title claims modesty by association, while allowing her to avoid expressing an immodest interest in theatres. The atlas, at home in state offices and on board ships, is unfeminine a genre enough; for Elizabeth to follow Ortelius and call her work a “theatre” would be to identify it with a genre even more transgressive, to show an interest in a place even less appropriate for a young girl to imagine visiting. It was surely safer to announce an interest in mirrors than in the theatres of the world. And yet here, too, our future playwright’s savvy title announces different affiliations to those in the know. Her title, as we have seen, announces a familiarity with the atlas genre that other admirers of Ortelius (like Lee) would have recognized. But Lee had also commissioned (and likely written) entertainments for Queen Elizabeth,81 and Drayton was soon to be writing plays for the Admiral’s men; so readers such as they might well have recognized that mirrors figured in the theatrical discourse of the period as well. Of this theatrical concern with mimesis and emulation, Hamlet’s exhortation to “Hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature” may serve to remind us.82 Elizabeth’s own Mirror, then, reflects strategically the nature of two very different readers by asserting the propriety needed to satisfy a strict parent, such as Lady Tanfield, and the knowledgeability useful for pleasing a sophisticated patron, such as Lee. Indeed, Elizabeth appears to have known exactly what sort of “thinge” was “beste awnswerable” to her uncle’s “moste noble disposition.” We do not know exactly what the “great favours” were for which Elizabeth thanks her uncle, and we do not know precisely what role Lee played during her formative years, but we know that he took an ongoing interest in his niece’s life and that he was more than capable of making a valuable contribution to her education in any number of ways. In a letter to Dudley Carleton in Paris, John Chamberlain wrote on 2 October 1602, “The commencement at Oxford was very famous … for the exceeding assemblie of gentles, but specially for the great confluence of cutpurses, whereof ensued many losses and shrewde turnes, as first Mr. Bodley lost his clocke. Sir Richrd Lea two jewells of 200 markes, wch Sr Harry Lea and he meant to have bestowed on the bride Mr Tanfilds daughter.”83 Lee was, then, enough involved in the plans for her marriage for it to be taken notice of in court. It is even likely that Lee had a hand in arranging Elizabeth’s marriage to Henry Cary, for the groom was both Lee’s nephew by marriage and cousin
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to Lee’s long-time mistress, Anne Vavasour, with whom he had been living openly since about 1590.84 Recent discussions of the Tanfield-Cary marriage tend to characterize it as an exchange of money for status and to overlook or minimize the aristocratic connections that the Tanfields already had. Karen L. Raber, for instance, stresses Henry Cary’s status as “courtier” and “Master of the Jewel House,” while saying of Elizabeth’s origins only that she “was born … to a gentry family.”85 In this Raber follows the Life’s assertion that Cary “married her only for being an heire,”86 as well as the general thrust of Nancy Cotton Pearse’s influential argument that Elizabeth’s marriage to Henry Cary “raised Tanfield from the upper middle class into the gentry, and the Tanfield fortune raised Henry Cary [who was made first Viscount Falkland in 1620] from the gentry into the peerage.”87 Yet although Tanfield was not knighted until 1604, two years after his daughter’s marriage, this may be seen as the culmination of a lifetime’s professional, political, and social achievements, the result both of his own industry and the assistance of his wife’s highly placed relation. Twenty years before he was knighted, Tanfield’s accomplishments were already impressive enough to win him the hand in marriage of Elizabeth Symondes, Lee’s niece, and since Lee’s support of Tanfield began immediately, the marriage probably had his approval.88 Lee’s only daughter Mary died shortly before Elizabeth Tanfield was born (c. 1583), which may account in part for his interest in his niece’s family,89 but whatever the reason, Lee cared enough about Elizabeth Symondes to keep a fulllength portrait of her at Ditchley all his life.90 Since Tanfield was by all accounts able and ambitious, it is no surprise that his star continued to rise after his marriage, but evidence strongly suggests that Lee helped a good deal. Although non-resident, Tanfield became MP for New Woodstock, Oxfordshire, in 1584, the same year as his marriage; Tanfield most probably gained this position “through Lee’s influence.”91 R.H. Melville Lee also reports that Sir Henry Lee used his considerable influence to help Lady Tanfield’s parents (Lee’s half-sister Katherine and her husband Giles Symondes) as late as 1590, when, after “Giles had been engaged in shipping ventures with ill success … for him Sir Henry Lee begged of Burghley … a licence to transport corn of his own growing, from Yarmouth to Marseilles or Toulouse.”92 Lee’s achievements and connections were so impressive, in fact, that if Lawrence Tanfield did indeed set out to join the aristocracy through marriage, as so many ambitious men have done, then he achieved this goal most obviously through his own marriage, not his daughter’s. Queen Elizabeth even honoured Tanfield with a visit in 1592, although Tanfield
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had not yet been knighted at the time. On 12 September, the queen was “at Sudeley Castle, the mansion of Giles Lord Chandos”; from there she travelled east and north to Woodstock and Ditchley, “and, thence, after resting some days at Woodstock, to Oxford on the 22nd.”93 But on the way from Sudeley Castle to Woodstock, as Mary Hill Cole notes, the queen stopped in Burford, on 15–16 September.94 The court records Cole draws on are, furthermore, consistent with the town of Burford’s local memory; Burford historian Michael Balfour records that Tanfield is “supposed to have entertained the Queen in a largely rebuilt Priory” in 1592.95 At the queen’s next stop, Woodstock, her host was of course Sir Henry Lee, where as Ranger of Woodstock he had received Queen Elizabeth on at least four occasions before 1592.96 Was her two-day visit to Tanfield’s Priory merely a matter of convenience, or did Lee have something to do with it? The only other occasion on which Tanfield entertained royalty at Burford Priory, his entertainment of King James and Queen Anne for three nights in September 1603, was again part of an itinerary that took the royal couple also to Woodstock.97 Although Tanfield by this time did have the Master of the Jewel House for a son-in-law, it is his long-standing relationship with Lee that best accounts for such repeated royal distinction. Besides being a great favourite of the queen’s, Lee could claim kinship with her, through ties of marriage if not of blood, and he was the friend and relative of many other powerful people as well, including the queen’s favourites Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.98 Through his great-grandmother, Lee was also connected to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the most powerful man in England for most of Elizabeth’s reign: Richard Lee’s wife was “Joan, daughter of William Saunders of Surrey and Banbury, whose other daughter Alice married Sir John Cooke of Essex, the grandfather of Lady Burghley [Mildred Cooke].”99 Lee knew how to nurture the connections he had, too, for he was close friends with Leicester from no later than 1566, when Leicester visited Lee’s home, until at least 1572.100 Despite tensions between Leicester and Burghley, furthermore, Lee and Burghley appear to have held one another in consistently high regard.101 To all of these connections Lee added another through his own marriage to Anne Paget, daughter of William, first Baron Paget, a man who wielded great influence during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward, and Mary.102 In the 1580s Lee also began to cultivate Walsingham’s friendship103 and appears to have earned his respect; the Privy Council evidently considered Lee “a man on whose energy and discretion” they “could rely, and his name often occurs in their minutes or in the papers of the Secretary of State [Walsingham], who was one of
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their leading members.”104 Lee became friends with the royal favourite Sir Christopher Hatton,105 and Anne Vavasour’s son by Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, born before she and Lee formed their connection, was according to Gwynneth Bowen also familiar with the Lee household.106 Thus, although I do not dispute the assertion that Henry Cary was motivated by money, his marriage to Lee’s grand-niece Elizabeth may more accurately be viewed as a profitable cementing of existing bonds than as an attempt to forge new ones. Lee was as capable of introducing Elizabeth to books and writers as he was to potential husbands, for he was as well-read as he was wellconnected. He was raised in the household of his uncle, the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt.107 Lee tilted against Sir Philip Sidney in 1581 and again in 1584; he travelled to the Netherlands in the company of Sidney and Fulke Greville on Sidney’s “embassage to congratulate the Emperor Rudolf of Germany.”108 As founder of the Accession Tilts and Ranger of Woodstock, he was responsible for commissioning and designing numerous royal entertainments, which gave him significant influence on a generation of English courtly writers, not least of whom is Sidney. Indeed, because of the importance of allegory and iconography in the pageantry of the Accession Tilts and other royal entertainments, Frances A. Yates considers Lee “one of the builders of the Elizabethan mythology.”109 Lee is the model for the knight Lelius in Book II of the Arcadia,110 and Yates considers it very likely that Lee was the author of The Tale of Hemetes the Hermit, which was presented before the queen at Woodstock in 1575. “If so,” concludes Yates, “he takes a not unimportant place in Elizabethan literary history, for in its mixture of Greek and chivalrous romance, its ramblingly attractive prose style, the Tale of Hemetes foreshadows the Arcadia (even the first version of which was not yet written in 1575).”111 Clearly he knew writers, and he valued writing. If Elizabeth’s manuscript Mirror was just the right sort of acknowledgment from a youthful prodigy to an important mentor, then, Lee had all the right qualifications to actually take on that role. And she needed mentors. All the biographical evidence confirms that Elizabeth was an unusually gifted child, and as current research into the development of gifted children demonstrates conclusively, children like Elizabeth differ from their peers not only in how much and how quickly they learn, but also in their personalities. Two characteristics typical of the gifted child are the drive to learn and the ability to learn well and happily in isolation; both of these are attested to in the oft-quoted passage from the Life that, “She having neither brother nor sister, nor other companion of her
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age, spent her whole time in reading; to which she gave herself so much that she frequently read all night; so as her mother was fain to forbid her servants to let her have candles” (187).112 As Ellen Winner explains, gifted children tend to exhibit just such a “rage to master” and tend also “to be more introverted and lonelier than the average child, both because they have so little in common with others and because they need and want to be alone to develop their talents.”113 Yet none of this should be taken to mean that Elizabeth had no companions of any age or that she needed none. After all, as the Life records, she learnt “of a Transylvanian, his language, but never finding any use of it, forgot it entirely” (186). In other words, she acquired one of her languages only because she was able to spend time with someone – presumably an adult – who spoke it. Elizabeth’s unconventional study of Transylvanian exemplifies the gifted child’s need for appropriate human resources and support, as well as for meaningful learning experiences. This successful experience with language acquisition may be contrasted with the Tanfields’ first attempt to have Elizabeth taught French: “When she was but four or five year old they put her to learn French, which she did about five weeks and not profiting at all, gave it over,” learning it afterwards “of herself, without a teacher” (Life, 186). To prove her brilliance (and perhaps also to validate her conversion by representing her as one not easily influenced by others), Life emphasizes Elizabeth’s self-reliance, stressing not only that she learned French “without a teacher,” but that she learned also Italian, Spanish, and Latin the same way, “without being taught” (186). In my view, however, it would be a mistake to accept this emphasis uncritically. The anecdote of the Transylvanian depicts a gifted learner who takes full advantage of the opportunity to acquire a foreign language in a meaningful context: conversation with a native speaker. It also illustrates the importance of such a context for retention: Elizabeth forgot her Transylvanian; she did not forget her French. By this I do not mean to challenge the Life’s report that Elizabeth learned French “of herself” (whether from books, through conversation with fluent speakers, or both, we are not told). However, I do wish to suggest that Elizabeth was able to retain her French at least in part because she was helped to find occasions on which to practise it to some meaningful end, this translation project being one good example of such an occasion. As Joseph S. Renzulli, Marcy Gentry, and Sally M. Reis point out, gifted children thrive in situations in which learning is facilitated by a teacher whose role is not that of the traditional “instructor and disseminator of knowledge” but that of “coach, resource procurer, and mentor,”
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someone who helps the child to achieve what Renzulli et al. term “authentic learning.”114 One of the most important and under-recognized needs of the gifted child is for a teacher or mentor with whom the child can share what Renzulli elsewhere terms “a romance with the discipline,” and without such a mentor early talents will often produce no fruit at all, but wither in the bud.115 No matter how talented, it is highly unlikely that Elizabeth could have developed the skills with languages and verse that Drayton credits her with in his Heroicall Epistles without appropriate support from an inspiring role model. Nor is it likely that she could have persisted in her commitment to this translation. Who Elizabeth’s chief mentor was we cannot know, but she clearly had others besides the nameless Transylvanian, even though the Life mentions none. The poet and writing master John Davies of Hereford was definitely a tutor of hers; this we know from his oft-cited dedication of The Muses Sacrifice (1612) to “LUCY, Countesse of Bedford; / MARY, Countesse Dowager of Pembrooke; / and, ELIZABETH, Lady Cary, / (Wife of Sr Henry Cary:) / Glories of Women,” in which he refers to Elizabeth Cary as his “Pupill.”116 Much work remains to be done on the question of whether or to what extent Davies influenced the development of Elizabeth’s writing style, but he may have been hired only to teach her penmanship as he was for the Earl of Northumberland’s son.117 In any case, neither his interests nor his abilities as a poet really qualified him to be the sort of mentor Elizabeth needed: Davies appears to have had no interest in writing either chronicle histories or verse dramas, two genres of interest to both Elizabeth and Drayton, and few critics find much of value in his verse.118 That Drayton himself was one of Elizabeth’s mentors is almost certain, although it is less clear whether or when Tanfield actually employed him. According to Bernard H. Newdigate, the fact that Drayton addresses Elizabeth as “‘my honoured Mistresse’” in Englands Heroicall Epistles “suggests that he was then in the service of her father,”119 but “Mistresse” is a term (unlike Davies’s “Pupill”) that may support any number of interpretations. To Newdigate’s suggestion Jean R. Brink brings a salutary skepticism, warning, for instance, that earlier biographers, Newdigate in particular, wrote at a time “when patronage relationships were assumed to be more intimate than in fact they were.”120 Consequently, Brink believes that we should read the multiple dedications in Englands Heroicall Epistles more as an “emphatic bid for patronage” than as evidence that Drayton was already, when he wrote the dedications, “intimately acquainted with any of these people.”121 There are good reasons, as well, for Brink’s opinion that “Drayton had probably established himself in Lon-
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don by 1591.”122 Besides the specific evidence Brink cites, that “[a] note in Piers Gaveston mentions that Drayton has consulted John Stow’s London library,”123 the fact that Drayton was publishing regularly from 1592 onwards argues for close access to London printers and booksellers. Nevertheless, I do not think we can entirely dismiss the possibility that Drayton worked for the Tanfields as Elizabeth’s tutor in the 1590s. As Brink herself points out, “That Drayton depended upon some kind of patronage for his livelihood, except for intermittent employment as a dramatist from 1598 to 1602, seems reasonably certain,” even though “we do not know what services he performed in his patron’s household.”124 As I have shown in the first part of this introduction, there is evidence in Drayton’s dedication to Elizabeth (evidence much stronger than his use of the term “mistresse”) that he was familiar with Elizabeth and her work. Brink does not discuss these details; indeed, on the specific content of Drayton’s dedication to Elizabeth she is silent. Furthermore, the striking change in Drayton’s manner and style of writing that took place in 1598 challenges us to consider what equally striking changes in his manner and place of living may have taken place at the same time. Suddenly, the man who had written no plays and collaborated with no poet began in 1598 to support himself by collaborating on chronicle plays for the Lord Admiral’s Men: Brink identifies fifteen plays on which he collaborated, with the likes of Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, and Anthony Munday, in that year alone.125 The fact that Englands Heroicall Epistles came out in 1597 may be enough to explain this sudden alteration; Brink follows Newdigate and Oliver Elton in suggesting that Drayton’s “success in handling English history in Englands Heroicall Epistles may have made him [newly] attractive … as a collaborator on chronicle plays.”126 Yet I think it fair to say also that the sole author of Idea The Shepheards Garland (1593), Ideas Mirrour (1594), Endimion and Phoebe (1595), Mortimeriados (1596), and Englands Heroicall Epistles (1597) did not need to live in London, whereas Dekker’s and Chettle’s writing partner absolutely did. Before 1598, Drayton was exchanging ideas with someone else quite different. Virginia Brackett has already shown evidence from Edward II of Drayton’s influence on Cary’s writing;127 my own research complements that scholarship with its evidence that this influence began early. In an analysis of Mariam’s “indebtedness to the form of the Sidnean closet drama,” Marta Straznicky notes that Drayton was a “friend of Samuel Daniel, vocal admirer of both Philip and Mary Sidney, and a close acquaintance of Thomas Lodge, whose translation of Josephus was Elizabeth Cary’s pri-
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mary source for Mariam,” and consequently she suggests that “If Drayton was employed … by Lawrence Tanfield, then this may well have been the primary channel through which the literary activities of the Sidney circle were initially conveyed to Elizabeth.”128 It must be remembered that Elizabeth is already linked to the Sidney-Herbert circle through Davies of Hereford and through Lee;129 nevertheless, when we take into account the echoes of each other’s work in the writings that Elizabeth and Drayton produced in 1597, the simplest explanation for all these intersections is that Drayton and Elizabeth did meet, probably more than once, to enjoy conversation about their shared interests in languages, verse, history, and chorography, and that these meetings took place either before Elizabeth had translated Ortelius for her uncle or while she was doing so. Yet whether Drayton met this sheltered pre-adolescent as tutor or family friend, someone else – some relative – must have facilitated the relationship. One person who definitely served as “coach, resource procurer, and mentor” (as Renzulli et al. put it) was Elizabeth’s father, and if Drayton was her tutor, Tanfield must obviously have been the one to employ the young poet. But did he choose him, or did he hire him on another’s recommendation? We cannot know, but what we do know about Tanfield strongly suggests that his interests were too narrow and too different from his daughter’s for him to have been the only architect of her education, and we know nothing about Lady Tanfield to suggest that she had any sympathy for intellectual pursuits. The Life reports that Tanfield “loved much to have her read, and she as much to please him,” but the only book he is on record as having given her to read was not a success: “When she was twelve year old, her father … gave her Calvin’s Institutions and bid her read it, against which she made so many objections, and found in him so many contradictions, and with all of them she still went to her father, that he said, ‘This girl hath a spirit averse from Calvin’” (Life, 188). This anecdote says as much about the Life’s hagiographical purpose as it does about Tanfield’s library, to be sure. But what we know of Tanfield’s life suggests that he had very narrow interests, confined almost entirely to the law, for according to the Life, “he did so entirely apply himself to this profession, and it did so swallow him up, that being said to be excellent in it, he was nothing out of it” (Life, 185). Given the divergence between her father’s interests and her own, Elizabeth would have needed more people than him from whom to learn, by whom to be encouraged, and from whom to borrow more interesting and congenial books than legal tomes or Calvin’s Institutions. It is not to Tanfield, Davies, or Drayton that Elizabeth dedicates this significant work of translation, and the
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one relative on record as having a strong taste for both literature and cartography is Lee. Another thing we may be quite sure of is that if Lee did spend time in the library of Burford Priory, he would have met Elizabeth there. As William H. Sherman points out, the typical Elizabethan library was a meeting place of like minds: a place of conversation and community, not isolation; a place not to retreat from the world, but to encounter it.130 Despite her mother’s strictness and her father’s uncongenial tastes in reading, it is clear that Elizabeth was allowed and even encouraged to converse with select adult men of her acquaintance. Her acquisition of Transylvanian is not the only evidence of this, nor is the indirect evidence contained in Drayton’s dedication. In my view, one of the most remarkable aspects of the Life’s oft-quoted anecdote about Elizabeth’s intervention in a witchcraft trial is the glimpse it gives us of a child whose classroom was the adult world, or at least a carefully regulated slice of it. Yet another uncle on the Symondes side appears in this scene, further evidence of close relations among Tanfield, his wife’s family, and his daughter: Being once present when she was ten year old, when a poor old woman was brought before her father for a witch, and, being accused for having bewitched two or 3 to death, the witness not being found convincing, her father asked the woman what she said for herself? She falling down before him trembling and weeping confessed all to be true, desiring him to be good to her and she would mend. Then he asking her particularly, did you bewitch such a one to death? she answered yes … Then the standers-by said, what would they have more than her own confession? But the child, seeing the poor woman in so terrible a fear, and in so simple a manner confess all, thought fear had made her idle, so she whispered her father and desired him to ask her whether she had bewitched to death Mr John Symondes of such a place (her uncle that was one of the standers-by). He did so, to which she said yes, just as she had done to the rest, promising to do so no more if they would have pity on her … then (all the company laughing) he asked her what she ailed to say so? told her the man was alive, and stood there. She cried, “Alas sir, I knew him not, I said so because you asked me.” Then he, “Are you no witch then?” “No, God knows,” said she, “I know no more what belongs to it than the child newborn … Then he examined her what she meant to confess all this, if it were false? She answered they had threatened her if
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she would not confess … she was easily believed innocent, and [ac]quitted. (Life, 186–7) Elizabeth could not have saved that woman’s life had Tanfield not chosen to take her with him to court that day. But there were other necessary conditions as well: Elizabeth’s assurance that she was allowed to listen to adult conversations and her assurance that she would be listened to if she spoke (as long as she spoke appropriately).131 That she felt such assurance in such a situation and that she was indeed listened to, is compelling evidence that Elizabeth was no stranger to the conversation of adults. Was John Symondes the only uncle Elizabeth conversed with? It seems unlikely, given what else we know of the relationship between the households in Burford and Ditchley. However, the strongest evidence that Elizabeth knew her uncle Lee well is this very translation of Ortelius, for Lee was a man unusually interested in cartography, and proud to have that interest known. Besides being a writer and iconographer, Lee was a welltravelled diplomat, landowner, and sometime soldier, a man who knew and appreciated maps for both their practical and their symbolic value. It is even possible that he met Ortelius personally, since he spent time in Antwerp in 1568, and Ortelius spent time in England from 1576 to 1577 or 1578.132 Furthermore, Lee’s interest in cartography strongly influenced his contribution to the project of interrogating, celebrating, and constructing Elizabeth Tudor’s program of self-representation. As is now well recognized, the sixteenth century was a time of transition in English culture, during which the nation as a whole developed a map consciousness that it had hitherto lacked.133 Not all Englishmen of Lee’s generation had this ability, but Lee definitely did. Maps had been central to the English government’s military strategy since Henry VIII, although not before; as Barber observes, “Given his [Lee’s] position as a soldier who had close links with the Office of Ordnance, his appreciation of the potential of maps and globes might be expected to be particularly acute.”134 Lee also had close ties with men who are known to have been map enthusiasts. His father-in-law Paget was one of the few of Henry VIII’s ministers who “were as enthusiastic about maps as their master.”135 Lee’s friend or patron, Walsingham, owned a first edition of Saxton’s atlas also, and Walsingham’s “diary of engagements for 1585, containing notes of his meetings with Richard Hakluyt, Thomas Digges, and Ralph Agas in connection with the harbor and fortifications works at Dover … show the extent to which he was involved with maps, cartographers, and people connected with mapmaking on a day-to-day basis.”136 Most significantly,
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Lee’s distant cousin Burghley collected maps almost obsessively and used them constantly, as we have seen. It was Burghley who sent Christopher Saxton out to map every county in England, an initiative that Queen Elizabeth authorized. As a result of this successful venture, Saxton published “the first national atlas of any country” in 1579,137 followed soon after by a large wall map of England, a copy of which the queen displayed in the Queen’s Gallery Whitehall.138 It is, furthermore, on a Saxton map of England that Queen Elizabeth stands in the famous Ditchley Portrait, the largest portrait of Queen Elizabeth ever painted, which was commissioned and designed in about 1592 by none other than Lee himself (see figure 4). The Ditchley Portrait hung at Lee’s home in Ditchley at least until 1762,139 and Ditchley is not too far from Burford to allow for the occasional visit. Elizabeth Tanfield may well have seen the portrait, therefore. It would be very surprising if she had not at least heard of it. For one thing, the queen stopped at the Priory in Burford on her way to make the visit to Woodstock and Ditchley that most scholars believe to have been the occasion on which Lee showed the new portrait to his queen.140 If Lee had something to do with the queen’s visit to Burford, as I have suggested, it is likely that the two households shared their plans or experiences with one another at some point. In any case, since it is certain that Elizabeth Tanfield was informed that the queen had made Lee a member of the Order of the Garter, it does seem reasonable to assume that, by the time she began work on this translation, she had learned in some way about Lee’s portrait gift to the queen just a few years before. For the man from Ditchley, then, Elizabeth’s Mirror of the Worlde really is almost the perfect gift. It affirms Lee’s commendable commitment to his queen by marking him as one who shares Elizabeth Tudor’s knowledgeable enthusiasm for maps, even as it marks Elizabeth Tanfield as one who knows of this enthusiasm and shares it. If one were seeking a gift to honour Lee, then, especially in the 1590s, one could hardly have made a better choice than the project we have before us. And yet, although the chosen genre is astonishingly appropriate for a man of Lee’s accomplishments and allegiances, the specific content is far less so. In fact, it could even cause such a reader offence, for there is more to Elizabeth’s Mirror than just the hint contained in her title to suggest that her tastes were more Catholic than they should have been. On the whole, Elizabeth here has produced, both through her choice of source text and her many editorial choices in translation and presentation, a text that, as it were, turns the globe so that England is in shadow while Rome,
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especially as religious and cultural capital of Europe, is in the light. In other words, insofar as Elizabeth’s translation puts Italy rather than England in the foreground, it forms a most imperfect mirror of Sir Henry Lee’s world.
“The Inconstancy of the Lordshippes, and Govermentes of This Worlde”: Cartography, Chorography, and Carthage What Elizabeth’s Mirror not only reflects but also anticipates are some of the ideological and aesthetic issues that were, at the time of her translation, starting to emerge in British chorographical texts: texts that include both Saxton’s atlas and Camden’s prose Britannia, as well as Drayton’s verse Poly-Olbion. As Klein explains, “The term chorography, in the basic definition deriving from Ptolemy, applies to the description of particular regions, defined against accounts dealing with whole continents or the entire earth, which properly belong to the respective disciplines of geography and cosmography.”141 In practice, distinguishing between chorography and geography can be difficult, but partly because large-scale maps of small regions can show the sorts of details (both natural and manmade) that small-scale maps of continents and globes cannot, the term “chorography” tends to be applied to representations of “lived spaces.”142 Chorographical texts can include information about “genealogy, chronology, and antiquities, as well as local history and topography,”143 and consequently, chorography is not limited to any particular genre. A chorographical work, as Richard Helgerson points out, may be “mapbook, prose discourse, or poem”; all that is required is a central “concern with place.”144 Mapless as it stands, therefore, Elizabeth’s Mirror locates itself within this chorographical tradition. Furthermore, her work in this project shows her to be actively engaged in exploring the ways in which such texts construct national and authorial identity, particularly with regard to the nature of the relationships between any given geographical region and those who inhabit, conquer, rule, possess, cherish, or speak for it. Chorography and England Defining these same relationships is also, of course, the central purpose of the Ditchley Portrait. Historians are divided on the question of how much Queen Elizabeth I valued maps for their practical usefulness, despite her sponsorship of Saxton’s history-making atlas. She continued to surround herself with maps, as her father and siblings had done before her, but she did not show an ongoing interest in commissioning them as
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Henry VIII had done; the Saxton project was almost an anomaly of her reign.145 Nevertheless, there can be no question that the queen greatly appreciated the iconographic usefulness of cartography, for as others, notably Roy Strong and Richard Helgerson, have shown, in 1579 maps started to become increasingly important to the queen’s program of selfrepresentation. The first Sieve portrait and the first edition of Saxton’s complete atlas of the counties of England and Wales were both produced in 1579; from that point on the “identification of the map of England with representations of the Queen was to become a recurring theme,”146 in a series of portraits and other texts that functioned collectively to identify England with its map and England’s map with its queen, while reconceiving the relationship of both to the rest of the world. At first the queen’s power over the land of England is emphasized, but her identification with it only suggested. The 1579 Saxton atlas asserts the queen’s claim on every page, since the royal arms are displayed on every map; consequently, “As we turn the pages, we are invited to remember that Cornwall is the queen’s, Hampshire the queen’s, Dorset the queen’s, and so on county by county.”147 The royal face, by contrast, is displayed only on the frontispiece; map and monarch are not directly juxtaposed (see figure 5). Nevertheless, the frontispiece does suggest Elizabeth’s identity with the land even while asserting her ownership of it. Because there is no title – just the image of the queen – the frontispiece functions both as an elaborate sort of bookplate and as a title page. These maps, it tells us, are hers; these maps, it also tells us, are her. With the 1579 Sieve Portrait by George Gower, similarly, both ownership and identity are suggested, while ownership remains the dominant theme. The queen’s figure dominates the painting, but Gower places close to her a small globe, “radiant with light” (as Strong puts it), on which is visible “the cartographic image of the kingdom.”148 The Sieve Portrait, attributed to Cornelius Ketel, c. 1580–83, develops the potential of this iconography further; once again we find a globe, on which basks a Britain “bathed in sunlight,” but this globe also features “much (presumably English) shipping moving towards the West, while mainland Europe lies plunged into darkness.”149 Not only do the queen of England and the map of England now occupy the same plane, but we also see land and monarch united in the shared glory of global mercantile power.150 Future portraits were to stress this unity yet further, in a program to which cartography was essential. Within the space of just a few years royal portraiture developed sophisticated applications of cartography that allowed it to concretize the doc-
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trine of the queen’s two bodies in such a way that the mystical body politic became identified with the land itself. In Elizabeth Tudor’s earliest uses of the discourse of the queen’s two bodies, the “body politic” is a fairly abstract term; in 1558, for instance, in her first speech as queen, she asserted, “I am but one body naturally considered, though by His permission a body politic to govern.”151 The queen’s ambiguous syntax here invites us to understand both that she is herself this “body politic” and also that she is the one “to govern” the “body politic,” but it constructs the nation in the latter sense as the subjects she governs, not the land they inhabit. What unites them is their shared subjection to the same monarchical head. By the time Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger painted the Ditchley Portrait, however (c. 1592), the “cartographic image of the kingdom on the globe and the physical presence of the sovereign” had become “two aspects of the same thing: England.”152 No longer on the next page or off to the side, here the map is an essential element of the design: to look at an image of either queen or country, now, is to see the other.153 Nonetheless, this is not all the Ditchley Portrait asks us to see. Louis Montrose issues an important reminder when he cautions that “the representational resources of the Ditchley Portrait are concentrated not only upon Elizabeth’s identification with England but also … upon Elizabeth’s possession of England.”154 Indeed, the queen’s ownership of the land is impossible to ignore: most immediately, Oxfordshire, the home county of both Lee and his niece Elizabeth, is under her feet. But so, for that matter, is the entire planet. Although viewers frequently describe this portrait as if the queen were standing on a map of England, this is not quite accurate; in fact, the map is part of yet another globe, much larger than those that adorn the Sieve Portraits, rotated so that in standing on England Elizabeth Tudor is literally on top of the world.155 If this is not immediately obvious in reproductions of the painting, it is because once again England is alone in the light while the rest of the globe is dark. As a consequence, although the Ditchley Portrait does depend on the Saxton atlas’s iconography of English sovereignty, its England does not ignore Europe and other nations in a spectacular insularity. Gower’s Armada Portrait (1588?) shows the queen “with her hand over the representation of North America,”156 an overt imperial claim; in the Ditchley Portrait, similarly, cartography is an element in the iconography of imperialism. However, the Ditchley Portrait constructs England’s relationships with its queen and with the rest of the world according to a model that Elizabeth Tanfield’s translation of L’Epitome firmly declines to endorse. Nor may the differences between portrait and map descriptions be ascribed
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merely to Elizabeth’s choice of an atlas of the world over a text focusing on England. As Barber points out, Elizabethan consumers of cartography considered the two genres of atlas (national and global) to be complementary, not adversarial; Burghley owned two map compilations, one of each kind, and Robert Beale, diplomat Clerk to the Privy Council, recommended having both kinds of map on hand.157 An interest in maps and descriptions of other lands was not, then, unpatriotic, at least for English men; politicians, diplomats, investors, and military strategists were beginning to consider them essential. Nevertheless, Elizabeth’s translation, as we have seen, is characterized by a lack of regard for just those details that would be of most practical value to a reader interested in either trade or invasion. Furthermore, her Mirror singles out for celebration neither Britain’s land, nor its ruler, nor its imperial aspirations. Instead, Elizabeth here exercises the options available to her as translator and scribe in ways that have the cumulative effect of signalling an interest in and enthusiasm for a unified and at least nominally Catholic Europe, rather than the English Protestant nationalism so dear to both Lee and Drayton. Nothing in the Mirror condemns the character, culture, or religion of the English people. In fact, its very first map description contains praise for the “dilligent” and “curiouse Englishmen,” by whose efforts “we hope to know” whether “America … be compassed with the Sea, or joined to Asia on the north side” (3r). Yet especially in comparison to certain other editions of Ortelius, Elizabeth’s source text is noteworthy for its dismissal of England as either a sovereign nation or a spiritual leader. Elizabeth is translating accurately when, in the Mirror’s one sustained description of her homeland, she writes that England is “the best ile of all Europe,” but then explains that this is chiefly because it has an excellent climate and is consequently “very rich of sheepe, the which (because there be no wolves in all the ile) feede securely in the fieldes. These sheepe have the best wooll” (5v). Sheep had been important to the Lee family’s fortunes for several generations, and they were also central to the economy of Burford, so Elizabeth had some reason to believe that this description could appeal to her readers.158 Still, the fact remains that in the Mirror’s description of England cultural and spiritual authority merit no mention. Even political authority is barely touched upon; the only reference to the monarchy is in the final sentence: “Unto this Englande there apertaine some certaine litle isles, as Mon, which the Englishmen call Anglesey Man, Wighte Sorlinges, Gernsey, and Jarsey etc. and allthough the two last seeme of righte to be Colonies to Fraunce because they are neerer it, yet they are provinces subject to the crowne of England” (Mirror, 5v, original italics). Elizabeth’s
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“subject to” may be considered to give the islands’ position, and England’s claim, more dignity than L’Epitome does, which has “soubs [under]” (5v). Nevertheless, this acknowledgment of the monarchy still reads like an afterthought, tacked on to the main text much as those “certaine litle isles” are themselves tacked on to the main island of England. Other English translators who were engaged in a similar project at roughly the same time did not always make the same choice of either source text or treatment. The publisher John Norton’s Epitome of Ortelius, His Theatre of the World (KAN, 332:31), which contains 125 maps, is based on a later edition of the Philips Galle Epitome (with text by Peter Heyns) that also served as Elizabeth’s source, and Norton’s description of England does contain much content that is similar to Elizabeth’s. However, Norton’s edition also features a much more respectful acknowledgment of the monarchy, as part of a version of history that completely ignores the Norman Conquest: “The Meridional greatest & best parte thereof is called England, of Englishmen (somtyme a people of Germanie) whose offpsring doth stil possesse the same under their owne King.”159 In general, Norton’s map descriptions are notable for their brevity, and, indeed, having less text to set may have helped him to beat his competition out of the gate; his rival, James Shawe, made other choices for his Epitome, published in London at about the same time (KAN, 333:31).160 Shawe’s source text is yet another French derivate of Ortelius, the 1601 Epitome published in Antwerp by Jan van Keerbergen with text by Michael Coignet. Again, the shared ancestry is evident in the many similarities that may be noted between Shawe’s map descriptions, Norton’s, and Elizabeth’s, but Shawe’s map descriptions tend to be significantly longer than Norton’s. In particular, England receives very different treatment at Shawe’s hands, in a text that is twice as long as that found in Elizabeth’s Mirror: This Ilande in former tymes called Brittaine of Brutus, above all other Ilands of Europe is estemed choisest, as wel in power as in Bignesse, it is devided into two parts or kingdomes, the one is Englande and other Schottlande. Englande is devided Into 3. greate Provinces, as Englande, Cornewaille, & wailles. The countrie is most fertile & fruteful, of all sorte of graynes & frutes, hath also mines of al sorts of mettalles, as wel of golde and silver (although not in so greate quantitye) as coper, steele, Iron, tinne and leade. Moste abounddante in sheepe which beare a wole so white and fine, & so farre exceding al other, as maye wel be called fleeces of golde. Insomuche that besides the innumerable quantitie of clothes bayes
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and kersies which are made therin, they make and have made an infinite treasure of theyr woolle, which is transported into all places of Europe and other partes of the worlde. The Ilande beareth no wine, nor yeeldeth mules nor Asses but greate store of most excelent amblinge horses. The aire most sweete delectable and temperate, little subjecte unto contaigious sicnesses or Infirmities, The people of a commelie and tal stature, very white and most likest unto th’Ittallians. The women are moste white and of admirable beautie aparelled in a most comely & decent order. The people livinge most honorablie, & for the most part alwayes merrie, feeding most upon fleshe, and drinking beere made of water and barle very holsome and nourishinge. In warres most vailiant and fierce, in peace moste discreet and maeke, gouverninge theyr estate with most politicke subjection, obedience and admirable tranquillitie. At sea they are moste redoubted and famous traffikinge from the most norther parth of the frozen Muscovie until the confines of the scorchinge Indies into Cathay, Egipte Turkie and other notable places: usinge vessels and ships of smal burthen, but of most swyfte sailinge, wel furnyshed with Artillerie and other necessaries as wel of offence ass deffence. There aboundeth also greate store of al sortes of fishe, and above al others amost excellent sorte of pike with excellent and delicate oisters farre exceeding any other countrie therin: it produceth also a most excellent kinde of mastiffe dogges, of a wonderful bignesse and admirable fiercenesse and strenghte. In it are two Archebishopricks vizt. Canturburie and york 26. bishopricks 2. universities Oxford and Cambridge & the which as Ancient writers recorde were the twoo firste Academies after the deathe of or Savior Christe. in it are contayned moreover 9779. parishes. Al the circumference of the lande enritched with excelent havens & partes capable to receive and harbor ships of greate burthens. The whole countrie beiside replenished which greate number of faire townes, vilages, very goodlie woods pleasaunt ground and parkes ful of Deere, enriched which pleasaint fountaines, and faire rivers, amongest the with the famous river of Thames must not be forgotten: upon whose banckes is cittuated that Ancient and flourishin famous cittye of London, which as wel for beautie riches and trade is not Inferior but equale with the best citties of Europe. With river is also beautified with statelye pallaces built on the side thereof, moreover a sumptous bridge sustayned upon 19. Arches with excellent & beautnous houses built thoron. There are mani
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more thinges with are contained in this famous kingdome, the description wherof would require more place, and a better writer, only this shall serve in breefe to content the reader. (5v) Although fine sheep are again a feature, the England depicted here has archbishoprics, cities, and a merchant navy to brag of as well; competition with established centres of cultural authority is explicit, in the assertion that London “is not Inferior but equale with the best citties of Europe,” and this translator makes the even more pointed claim that the English people are “most likest unto th’Ittallians.” Furthermore, although Shawe’s text does not explicitly mention England’s break with Rome, the assertion that England’s universities were “the twoo firste Academies after the deathe of or Savior Christe” makes an implicit claim for England as the centre of the true theology.161 If we look for comparisons between the English and the Italians in Elizabeth’s Mirror, however, there is simply no contest. The 1588/90 Epitome damns England with faint praise, whereas it contains one of the most flattering descriptions of Italy to be found in a sixteenth-century atlas, and Elizabeth’s treatment of L’Epitome’s descriptions does nothing to redress the imbalance between these two countries. Her England can boast that “meat is alwaies more cheape,” and its “inhabitants make so greate quantity of cloth, that they furnish allmost all parts of the worlde, and enrich them selves allso, the trafficke which they bring being, so greate” (Mirror, 5v), but there is nothing regal about such details. Italy, by contrast, Elizabeth hails as “the Queene of Christendome, and the princesse of the world which by her force and poure haith bene reduced under her obedience[,] and by her learning and doctrine haith bene instructed and trained up in politique manners, lawes and customes” (Mirror, 34r). As we have seen, not all editions treat Rome with such unqualified praise; the 1598 Miroir’s description of Italy, for instance, quoted in full in the first part of this introduction, contrasts Italy’s current weakness and division with her past power and glory. Norton’s “Italie” resembles Elizabeth’s in avoiding all such issues, but Norton’s text is discreetly brief, about two-thirds the length of his “England,” and although he says nothing uncomplimentary, he also avoids making any strong claims for superiority. Instead, he protests that “This famous countryes praise would rather requyre a large volume then so brief a description as a page of paper wil admit,” while leaving a good portion of that “page of paper” blank (Epitome of Ortelius, 1602?, 60v). Elizabeth practises no such discretion.162 According to her Mirror, Italy’s religious and cultural authority are all that matter, and they are absolute.
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Furthermore, Elizabeth takes full advantage of the tools available to her as translator and scribe to signal her endorsement of the distinction L’Epitome draws between these two nations. I have already given considerable attention to the title of her text as a whole, but there are ninetythree other titles in the Mirror – one for each map description – and these too bear close attention, for in the task of providing these titles Elizabeth has found the opportunity through graphic design to pass editorial comment on the map descriptions that follow.163 In particular, I note striking differences between Elizabeth’s treatment of the titles of the descriptions of England and Italy (see figures 6 and 9). The name of her own country she modestly sets forth, with minimal embellishment, whereas Italy’s name she chooses to make unusually ornate. These differences are even more significant when we take into account the fact that the first eight map descriptions in the Mirror are, as a set, more ornate than those that follow, and “Englande” is part of this set (see Note on the Text). Only these eight map descriptions have double-ruled left margins, and six of these eight (one of which is “Englande”) have small graphic symbols following the titles. Elizabeth attaches such embellishments to her titles only twice more after folio 6v, and she abandons the practice entirely after “Gascoine” [10r]). Yet of the eight titles in this set, “Englande” gets a relatively simple one (5v); even the title for the despised country of “Irelande” (6v) is more elaborate (see figure 7). Italy’s description, on the other hand, appears towards the end of the manuscript, where most titles are unadorned; the title for “the Countrie of SWETLAND [Switzerland]” (33v), which immediately precedes “Italye” in the manuscript, is representative (see figure 8). Elizabeth has nevertheless given “Italye” a title that is not only remarkably ornate but also the largest in the entire manuscript.164 By this means, then, the future recusant signals Italy’s importance. When taken alongside her tone and diction in the description that follows, furthermore, this recognition acquires the status of an endorsement. Even as she offers this manuscript in honour of her uncle’s commitment to the living icon of English Protestant nationalism, then, Elizabeth assents to L’Epitome’s representation of the supremacy of Italian culture. That Elizabeth paid attention to the content of the work before her and was sensitive to its significance is evident from the choices she made in its presentation; there is even some evidence in her mature work that her thinking continued to be influenced years afterwards by the issues she wrestled with in her youthful translation. There are suggestive similarities between some of her rhetorical strategies in the Mirror and her much later translation, the 1630 Reply of the Most Illustrious Cardinall of Perron, to the Answeare of the Most Excellent King of Great Britaine. And in both
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the Reply and the Tragedy of Mariam we find Cary returning to issues she confronts in the Mirror, involving the location and limits of spiritual, cultural, and political authority. Even her treatment of these issues in the later works is at times reminiscent of what we find in her earliest extant work. As we have seen, without directly challenging the authority of the English monarchy, L’Epitome nevertheless affirms Italy’s cultural and spiritual reign over Europe; the Reply goes much further, of course, by issuing an overt challenge both to England’s religious insularity and to the spiritual authority of England’s former reigning monarch. Du Perron’s express purpose is to demonstrate the errors in King James’s defence of the Protestant faith, taking on, for instance, such issues as “the authoritie of the rest of the Christian people, which denied to the Church the title of Catholick” (Reply, 446). The Reply also addresses James’s claims for spiritual authority with arguments on such topics as “the exceptions that the Kinge produceth to shewe that he hath not separated himselfe from the Church.” (Reply, 442). As we might expect, Cary balances these challenges with expressions of respect for the English crown in her dedication of the Reply to “The Majestie Of Henrietta Maria Of Bourbon, Queene Of Great Brittaine,” where she describes herself in closing as “A most faithfull subject, and a most humble servant” (ã2). Nevertheless, Cary does not here construct a straightforward binary of spiritual and secular authority, located in Rome and England respectively; it is much more complicated than that. Throughout the dedication she credits Henrietta Maria with a multiplicity of identities, so constructed that neither blood nor rank is the sole source of any authority which Cary acknowledges. Instead, she asserts that the queen may “challenge … manie just titles”: she is “a daughter of France” first; she is “the Queene of England” second; she is, moreover, “Kinge James his Sonns wife, and therefore, since the misfortune of our times, hath made it a presumption, to give the Inheritance of this worke (that was sent to the Father in French) to the Sonne in English, whose proper right it is, you are fittest to receive it for him, who are such a parte of him, as none can make you two, other then one. And for the honor of my Sexe, let me saie it, you are a woeman, though farr above other wemen, therefore fittest to protect a womans worke … And last, to crowne your other additions, you are a Catholicke” (Reply, ã2). Here, the importance of Henrietta Maria’s status as queen of England is diminished in several ways: it is one title among many, and it is neither first nor last among those many. First place Cary gives to the queen’s Bourbon ancestry, and last place she gives, emphatically, to her Catholicism. As for King
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Charles, England’s titular ruler, Cary does represent him as possessing two bodies, mystically united, but these are not the body natural and the body politic. They are Charles’s body natural and his wife’s. By emphasizing this union only, then, Cary subverts the doctrine cherished by Stuart rulers that the king’s relationship to his country is analogous to that of husband and wife. In his 1603–04 speech in defence of the union of Scotland and England, James famously asserted, “I am the Husband, and all the whole Isle is my lawfull Wife; I am the Head, and it is my Body; I am the Shepherd, and it is my flocke: I hope therefore no man will be so unreasonable as to thinke that I that am a Christian King under the Gospel, should be a Polygamist and husband to two wives; that I being the Head, should have a divided and monstrous Body.”165 Yet in her dedication to James’s daughter-in-law Cary places the royal husband in a passive role. When she asserts that the wife is “fittest to receive” this book “for him,” she puts Henrietta in the position of “Head” or “Shepherd,” the one who acts on behalf of her spouse. We may recall that Elizabeth Tanfield’s Mirror mentions no English monarchs by name; similarly, in this dedication of the Reply, although she acknowledges the late King James, Cary does not, even once, name Charles I. On one reading, then, Cary’s strategy here recalls the Mirror of the Worlde insofar as she does not directly challenge the reigning monarch. As Karen L. Nelson observes of the Reply, “Couched as it was in terms of a translation of an argument not against Charles but against his father, Cary muted the ways in which her treatise attempted to correct the English Church’s errors.”166 But if she is careful not to challenge Charles directly, she is at least equally careful not to flatter him, and we may recognize this strategy from her Mirror as well. We would not expect to see any mention of a reigning English monarch in Mariam, which is set in pre-Christian Palestine. Nevertheless, this work resembles both Mirror and Reply in that, although Cary uses in this original tragedy quite different means to achieve the effect, in Mariam too she affirms Rome as a locus of spiritual and cultural power, while resisting any attempt to locate secular authority in a particular location. Mariam looks to Rome – the name of both city and nation, at the time – in the tragedy’s opening lines: “How oft have I with public voice run on / To censure Rome’s last hero for deceit: / Because he wept when Pompey’s life was gone, / Yet when he liv’d, he thought his name too great. / But now I do recant, and, Roman lord, / Excuse too rash a judgement in a woman” (Mariam, 1.1–6). Similarly, Herod invokes Rome in his first scene, and he does so, furthermore, in language that recalls the Mirror: there, as we
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have seen, Elizabeth describes Italy as “the Queene of Christendome, and the princesse of the world” (34r), and upon his return to Jerusalem Herod apostrophizes Rome as “You, world-commanding city, Europe’s grace” (4.63). Nor would I read this ironically, despite Herod’s status as villain of the piece, for Cary consistently affirms Rome’s moral authority in this play. Mariam describes herself as the judgmental one, while imagining Caesar as the one who might “Excuse” this error; Herod, similarly, experiences Rome as a city of “grace.” Cary explains this off-stage experience in the play’s Argument: Herod, … having crept by the favour of the Romans, into the Jewish monarchy, married Mariam, the [grand-daughter] of Hircanus, the rightful king and priest … This Mariam had a brother called Aristobulus, and next him and Hircanus, his grandfather, Herod in his wife’s right had the best title. Therefore to remove them, he charged the [second] with treason: and put him to death; and drowned the [first] under colour of sport. Alexandra, daughter to the one, and mother to the other, accused him for their deaths before Anthony. So … he was forced to go answer this accusation at Rome … But he returned with much honour. (Mariam, 67) In Palestine, Herod is a tyrant who rules with absolute power, which he wields unjustly; on the larger stage, however, Rome is a source not only of judgment – with authority even over Herod – but also a source of unexpected, undeserved mercy. Moreover, Mariam’s Rome is the locus of cultural excellence. Upon his return, Herod describes Jerusalem as “happy in the Temple where w’ adore” (4.1.3) but reserves all praise of urban art for Rome: “Twice hath my curious eye your streets survey’d, / I have seen the statue-filled place,” he comments, adding, “I all your Roman beauties have beheld, / And seen the shows your ediles did prepare; / I saw the sum of what in you excell’d, / Yet saw no miracle like Mariam rare” (4.1.22–3, 25–8). Mariam is the greatest wonder, but Rome sets the standard to which all else must be compared.167 Although Mariam is set in a pre-Christian time, then, it grants to Rome a moral and cultural authority similar to that granted it by the young Elizabeth’s Mirror. However, the Roman Empire of pre-Christian
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Palestine wields a secular authority that Cary must come to terms with; the Mirror may pass over questions of Italian politics and power in silence, but Mariam cannot ignore them. Instead, Cary makes subtle distinctions between forms of secular power. Where it is judicial, she emphasizes Rome’s power to forgive, as we have seen; the power to condemn is repeatedly exercised by Herod, whose local authority over the lives of his subjects is very much the subject of the play. Insofar as Rome represents the power that results from the possession of wealth and privilege, however, Cary depicts it as a place of temptation. For instance, when Alexandra urges her daughter to go to Rome and seduce Caesar in the expectation of temporal, sexual, and political triumph, Mariam replies, “Not to be empress of aspiring Rome, / Would Mariam like to Cleopatra live” (1.2.199–200).168 In this context Rome is a place whose attraction it is a virtue to resist. This exchange between mother and daughter is also thematically significant in that one queen, Mariam, who never reigned in her own right, and whose acceptance of her powerlessness contributes to making her a sort of saint figure in the play’s final two acts, here rejects the example of another queen, Cleopatra, who unlike Mariam enjoyed real (if not absolute) political power in her kingdom. In portraying Mariam, then, Cary constructs a queen who significantly resembles the queen she will later construct in her dedication of the Reply to Henrietta Maria: an exemplary woman noteworthy for her royal blood and her religious virtue but not for her power in the world.169 It is this latter feature that, of course, makes both Mariam and Henrietta Maria very different from the queen whom the Ditchley Portrait honors, whom Sir Henry Lee represented himself as serving, and whom Elizabeth Tanfield’s Mirror ignores. On the Ditchley Portrait is a sonnet, almost certainly composed by Lee himself, which affirms Elizabeth I as earthly representative of divine authority: “Thunder the Ymage of that power dev[ine,] / Which all to nothinge with a worde c[an ??] / Is to the earth, when it doth ayre r[efine,] / Of power the Scepter, not of wr[ath the ??].” The sonnet concludes, “Rivers of thanckes still to that oc[ean flow,] / Where grace is grace above, power po[wer below].”170 Depending on how we read the last line, Lee’s verse constructs Her Grace, Queen Elizabeth, as either the instrument of divine grace or its surpasser. In either case, Elizabeth Tudor’s will and God’s will are indistinguishable from one another, and natural phenomena express both at once. This is not the relationship between God and monarch that Cary assumes in her
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dedication of the Reply or in her Tragedy of Mariam. Nor is it what she acknowledges in the Mirror. Monarchy, Masculinity, and Multiplicity In many ways, then, Elizabeth’s work in this, her first full-length project, strongly suggests an early and abiding distrust in some of the central doctrines of English Protestant nationalism, a distrust that leads her in quite different directions from those taken by such contemporary chorographers as Lee (who did not paint the Ditchley Portrait but who “was the author of” its “iconography”), Saxton, and Drayton.171 Elizabeth can hardly have been unaware of Drayton’s career commitment to the project of writing England: he had begun writing about England’s history with Piers Gaveston (1553), Matilda (1594), Mortimeriados (1596), and Robert of Normandy (1596), and starting with Englands Heroicall Epistles the term “England” appears regularly in his titles.172 Although the first volume of his life’s work, Poly-Olbion, was not published until 1612, it was far enough along by the time Palladis Tamia went to press in 1598 for Francis Meres to inform his readers that “Michael Drayton is now in penning in English verse a Poem called Polu-olbion Geographical and Hydrographicall of all the forests, woods, mountaines, fountaines, rivers, lakes, floudes, bathes and springs that be in England.”173 This detailed and accurate advertisement of a project well underway makes it reasonable to suppose that Drayton began work on Poly-Olbion shortly after completing Englands Heroicall Epistles in 1597 (if not earlier), especially if we remember that, in 1598, he collaborated on fifteen different plays for the Lord Admiral’s Men.174 It is not likely that he had more leisure for writing poetry in 1598 than he had the previous year. In any case, the work Drayton completed and published in 1597 strongly suggests that he hoped at the time that Elizabeth would share his commitment to England’s history as a subject. Not only does he dedicate two of the Heroicall Epistles to her, but he also, in that dedication, imagines her becoming a new and specifically English Muse (EHE, 43v, see also the first part of this introduction). Drayton is, then, at least as likely as Lee to have been surprised and disappointed by Elizabeth’s choice of a work that gives England so little honour. Nevertheless, Elizabeth’s translation of L’Epitome should not be read as a straightforward rejection of either the ideology or the aesthetics of her mentors. The fact that she did go on to write several versions of a history of Edward II suggests that Drayton’s hopes were far from empty, particularly since, as we have seen, Edward II (written 1626–28, published 1680) contains many traces of Drayton’s influence.175 We need not, how-
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ever, wait until Edward II to find evidence of this influence,176 for the Mirror’s resistance to monarchical absolutism in general and to its Elizabethan version in particular is a feature of both the Ditchley Portrait and Poly-Olbion, however unintended; so, too, is its aesthetic of multiplicity. Consequently, I do not read Elizabeth’s Mirror as an outright rejection of either Lee’s or Drayton’s example. Instead, I read those elements of Elizabeth’s ideology that are incompatible with her mentors’ as proceeding from a thoughtful acknowledgment and interrogation of the conflicts and contradictions announced in contemporary chorographical works either completed or in progress in 1597. Despite their overt messages of honour and submission, both the Saxton atlas and the Ditchley Portrait problematize monarchical absolutism insofar as both represent competing systems of authority – monarchy and gentry – without entirely reconciling them; furthermore, both, in so doing, point towards Drayton’s Poly-Olbion. According to Helgerson, even though “Saxton’s atlas provides a deliberate and insistent statement of royal claims,” it nevertheless “undermines” these claims because, “[w]hile rivers and woods, towns and castles, even political boundaries appear on maps as features intrinsic to the land, explicit symbols of royal control are necessarily made to look marginal, merely decorative, and thus ultimately dispensable.”177 Consequently, maps let their viewers “see in a way never before possible the country – both county and nation – to which they belonged and at the same time showed royal authority – or at least its insignia – to be a merely ornamental adjunct to that country.”178 It is, on Helgerson’s reading, a consequence of the “conceptual gap” that maps opened “between the land and its ruler” that “[i]n just a few decades” from the publication of the Saxton atlas, “chorography … progressed from being an adjunct to the chronicles of kings to being a topographically ordered set of real-estate and family chronicles.”179 Although Poly-Olbion does not obviously set out to represent England as real estate, it too is very much concerned with issues of possession and ownership. And it does exemplify the “ideological effect” produced by the “cartographic representation of England,” which “strengthened the sense of both local and national identity at the expense of an identity based on dynastic loyalty.”180 In fact, Helgerson reads the first part of Poly-Olbion as the work in which “the shift in attention and ideological commitment initiated by Saxton’s atlas achieved its iconographic culmination,” in large part because, from the maps accompanying Drayton’s songs, “all dynastic insignia are banished.”181 Furthermore, as Raphael Falco compellingly argues, PolyOlbion as a whole features “regional and vice-regal multiplicity manifest
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in … often wildly fantastic political situations.”182 This resistance to monarchical absolutism that both Helgerson and Falco observe is, in my view, something Elizabeth’s work shares with that of her mentor Drayton. I would argue, furthermore, that her work shares this feature with that of Lee as well, for such resistance may be found encoded even in the Ditchley Portrait. Although I am deeply indebted to Helgerson’s analysis of Elizabethan and Jacobean chorography, it is not clear to me that “political boundaries” do appear on maps “as features intrinsic to the land,” and largely for this reason I cannot entirely share his assessment that the Ditchley Portrait, unlike the Saxton atlas on which it depends, “unambiguously enforces the royal cult.”183 If England is Elizabeth Tudor’s other self, then the nation is the indivisible body of the monarch; nor can nation and monarch be divided one from the other. Yet by using cartography to convey these equivalencies, the portrait, like the atlas it invokes, actually exposes the incommensurate forms of the nation’s two bodies, thereby dramatizing just how irreconcilable are the competing claims for authority of monarch and landowner. Saxton’s map is divided into counties; consequently, on the Ditchley Portrait the political boundaries within England are much more strongly marked than the physical boundaries of the island, most of which (including the coasts of Wales, Scotland, and all of the east coast north of Essex) are blurred by shadow or hidden under the queen’s skirt. If this portrait were to offer an unproblematic celebration of the cartographically inflected doctrine of the queen’s two bodies, especially for the post-Calais era of insular pride, then we might expect England’s physical outline to correspond to the physical outline of the queen’s body. Instead, however, the portrait’s deliberate vagueness on the overall shape of the nation (does it include Wales or not? and what about Scotland?) demonstrates the difficulties inherent in trying to represent a contested political entity as a self-contained organic unit, and anticipates the difficulties James I and VI would face in trying to convince the subjects of his two kingdoms that the island they shared constituted a single nation. The boundaries that are clearly marked (distinguished by both line and colour) are the county boundaries of the south: lines whose unnatural origins are emphasized by their disregard for the lines traced by the rivers they repeatedly cut up, and thus vivid reminders of the reality that political borders are arbitrary and man-made. While the Ditchley Portrait does on one reading represent the queen’s two bodies, then, it simultaneously represents the conceptual gap (to borrow Helgerson’s term) between a nation and a single, living entity whose shape is ordained by nature. England, in other words, is revealed in this text to be not a body at all.
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Consequently, the Ditchley Portrait also anticipates one of the most striking aspects of Poly-Olbion, namely, its representation of the land of England as the site of competition and conflict. On the Ditchley map, the very existence of those artificially drawn boundaries within the nation serves in part to validate the claims of the many Englishmen whose holdings such man-made borders help to define. Oxfordshire is England’s, to be sure. Nevertheless, even as the Ditchley Portrait performs Lee’s submission to his queen’s superior authority (by placing him, as it does, symbolically under her feet), it puts him in the picture too, by reminding us of Lee’s status as a major landowner in Oxfordshire. Thereby the portrait acknowledges the possibility of conflict: a conflict grounded in competing claims of ownership of the land. Yet, the acknowledgment is subtle; the only explicit hint of trouble in this painting is relegated to the margins, in the sonnet’s reference to the wrathful “Thunder … of that power dev[ine].”184 By contrast, conflict and contestation over the land are explicitly and centrally featured in the frontispiece to the 1612 edition of Poly-Olbion. In this case, they are located not in England’s present but her past; the frontispiece depicts a female “GREAT BRITAIN” clothed in a map, seated under a triumphal arch with the ocean behind her, holding both a sceptre and a cornucopia, but framed by four male figures representing the Trojans, Romans, Saxons, and Normans who have each in turn desired and fought to possess her (see figure 10). Nevertheless, to whatever degree the frontispiece constructs England’s present state as one of unity and concord, it also establishes that this felicity is not the product of monarchical possession. James I and VI, the reigning monarch at the time of publication, is not even in this picture. In its emphasis on the land and its various possessors, therefore, and in its lack of recognition of monarchical authority, the frontispiece to Poly-Olbion documents an “emerging system” in which “Authority … is not centered” on the monarch “but dispersed.”185 Dispersal and disputation can seem goals unto themselves for Drayton, as his Argument for the Third Song illustrates: “In this third Song, great threatnings are, / And tending all to Nymphish war. / Old Wansdike uttereth words of hate, / Depraving Stonendge’s estate. / Clear Avon and fair Willy strive, / Each pleading her prerogative. / The Plaine the Forrests doth disdaine: / The Forrests raile upon the Plaine” (Poly-Olbion, 3.1–8). The coming pages make good on these “great threatnings,” too, but all these spats and squabbles have engendered some scholarly disputations as to their significance. Noting that Drayton avoids “absolute confrontations between good and evil,” and that “disagreement thus never results in irresolvable or destructive conflict,” Barbara C. Ewell argues that “op-
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position in the Poly-Olbion is not clearly distinguished from mere diversity,”186 and reads Poly-Olbion’s many jars as illustrative of the poetic technique that she considers central to Drayton’s esthetic: a metaphoric process focused on “the blending of a diversity of discrete parts into an integrated whole,” namely the body of England.187 Drayton’s very title invites such a reading, and I would not discount it. However, much like its frontispiece, Poly-Olbion proper invites multiple readings, including Claire McEachern’s insightful argument that Drayton’s “project … is to erode the grounds that bolster ideological contest.” This, in her view, he achieves by crafting a poem that “seeks to foster and celebrate local pride” even as it seeks to undermine this pride by undermining “the myth of a glorified and immemorial, always-already longevity and integrity.”188 Consequently, the poem does encourage us “to envisage Britain as one giant and harmonious country house,” yet Poly-Olbion is equally convincing in its portrait of an England “fragile and mutable, eroding and deforested, riven with political contest both past and present.”189 Because the “debate over the relation of [the political nation of] England to [the island of] Britain concerns that of the local to the total, and the region to the entirety of England,” on McEachern’s reading Poly-Olbion’s endless contests function to refuse us any easy answers about the nature or source of national identity.190 To this sophisticated reading I would add just one point, highly relevant to any discussion of Elizabeth Tanfield’s engagement with Drayton’s ideas or work in progress: the contradictory qualities critics have observed in the land also contribute to its feminization. On Helgerson’s reading, William Hole’s frontispiece for Poly-Olbion feminizes England as “a fitting object for male desire and appropriation” in its depiction of those four masculine figures who “warily eye one another or their intended prey,”191 and I would argue that the constant conflict in Drayton’s Poly-Olbion itself produces a similar effect. In other words, England, as Drayton depicts her, is the site of continual combat because she is both so femininely contradictory in herself and so vitally, erotically fertile. Where authority is dispersed but always desiring, constant competition must, paradoxically, remain one of Albion’s most stable characteristics. In this, too, I would argue that Poly-Olbion aligns itself with the Saxton atlas and Ditchley Portrait, for all three of these texts challenge the identification of the monarch with the land in part by constructing its readers as Englishmen who either possess the land or worship it or both. For Saxton and Lee, the island of England is the queen’s possession and her body politic; Drayton, whose work does not mention either Elizabeth Tudor or
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James Stuart anywhere in its pages, reconceives the mystical divinity of England as something inherent in the land itself.192 Nonetheless, Drayton’s England, just like Lee’s Virgin Queen, is a quasi-divine object of masculine admiration and desire. The desire is a bit less chaste now, but Poly-Olbion conveys England’s claims to its inhabitants’ devotion by feminizing and eroticizing the island in ways recognizable from Elizabethan iconography.193 All three of these influential texts, then, resist or deny the authority of the monarchy, at least to some extent; all three gender as female the English land itself, and all to some extent at least affirm the right of English men to claim power over that same land. In the frontispiece, front matter, and Songs themselves, Poly-Olbion repeatedly invites the male reader to imagine himself viewing, desiring, fighting over, and possessing an eroticized female landscape. And in this rich proliferation of strongly gendered imagery we find the ideological aspects of Drayton’s poetics of nationhood that may have been most inimicable to Elizabeth Tanfield, whom Poly-Olbion invites to identify, not with land’s masculine possessors, but with the feminine land itself. However, in this same proliferation of imagery we find also the aesthetic aspects that Elizabeth may have found most congenial. For Poly-Olbion’s frontispiece the artist has enthroned his island queen in state; she “gazes serenely out,” on Helgerson’s reading “a confident source of identity and continuity” who is impervious to her sparring suitors: “Edgy and mutually destructive male rivalry is theirs; power and plenty remain always with her.”194 Drayton’s directions to the reader, however, must complicate our response to the frontispiece, for Drayton explicitly instructs his readers not to see “GREAT BRITAIN” as either self-contained or self-possessed. Rather, his accompanying verse, “Upon the Frontispice [sic],” which is printed facing the frontispiece in the 1612 edition, directs us “Through a Triumphant Arch, [to] see Albion plas’t, / In Happy site, in Neptunes armes embras’t” (“Upon the Frontispice,” 1–2).195 This instruction transforms the “Triumphant Arch” from an emblem of Albion’s pre-eminence to a peephole through which the prurient gaze may enjoy the view of a woman being embraced. Instead of seeing the ocean, full of ships, as an extension of her divine dominion, Drayton asks us to see it as her lover Neptune, divine in his own right. Furthermore, Neptune and his queen are, as Drayton explains, surrounded by images “On the Columnes … / (As Trophies raiz’d) what Princes Time hath seene / Ambitious of her” (ibid., 5–7). Albion’s role as enduring conqueror is granted here but confined to parentheses: her lovers’ images are “(As Trophies raized).” In the lines that follow, moreover, Drayton proceeds
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to reconstruct these conquests as active suitors and rulers: “In hir yonger years, / Vast Earth-bred Giants woo’d her”; then “AEneas Nephew (Brute) them conquered” (ibid., 7–8, 10). Next she was loved by “the Roman,” who “by long sute, / Gain’d her” (ibid., 13–14), and finally, with the advent of the Normans, “She chang’d hir love to Him, whose Line yet rules” (ibid., 18). With such descriptions, Drayton represents England’s history as the serial monogamy of an eternally sensuous and rather susceptible woman.196 If, by the end of that initial poem, Britain is starting to look like the real trophy in the picture, Drayton reinforces this reading in the second of his introductory texts. Much as “Upon the Frontispice” does, his prose address “To The General Reader” constructs his ideal reader as male by offering advice on how to read the poem ahead: advice that promises this reader the pleasures of intellectual superiority and erotic stimulation that derive from making England the female object displayed for the male viewer’s gaze. Drayton appears to have forgotten all the brilliant women he praises in Englands Heroicall Epistles, including Elizabeth Tanfield, for he begins here by dismissing female readers, warning that this “unusuall tract may perhaps seeme difficult, to the female Sex.”197 To those (presumably male) readers capable of appreciating his work, Drayton then promises that they will “see the Rarities & Historie of their owne Country delivered by a true native Muse” in a reading experience that mimics the experience of stealing “to the top of an easie hill … from whose height thou mai’st behold both the old and later times, as in thy prospect, lying farreunder thee; then convaying thee down by a soule-pleasing Descent through delicate embrodered Meadowes, often veined with gentle gliding Brooks; in which thou maist fully view the dainty Nymphes in their simple naked bewties, bathing them in Crystalline streames, which shall lead thee, to most pleasant Downes.”198 It is not difficult to map this “soule-pleasing Descent” onto a narrative of sexual possession. Each reader, hereby – each male reader, that is – is invited to identify himself with those first four readers of Britannia’s body, “eying their prey” as Helgerson points out. This is a subject position that the rest of Poly-Olbion also contributes to producing, through Drayton’s strategy of sexualizing England with a series of suggestive and outright erotic images and allegories. Within just the first three Songs Drayton gives us “big-swolne waves” and a sun that “plungeth” into them (1.19; 22), an orgasmic “lustfull Neptune” who “Breaks foming o’re the Beach … / Till he have wrought his will on that capacious Poole” (1.144, 147–8), insatiable “wanton Brookes, that waxing, still doe wane; / That scarcelie can conceive, but brought to bed againe” (1.137–8), the “Dulas” river “like some childish wench, shee looselie wan-
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toning, / With tricks and giddie turnes seemes to in-Ile the shore” (2.172, 174–5), and, of course, one of the books’ chief unifying features: a proliferation of “naked Sea-Nymphes” (2.37) and other nymphs who variously swim, resist, marry, and succumb. Although Drayton does not always specify their nakedness in his text, the maps that accompany the songs ensure that we picture the nymphs he writes about in this way, for they are richly populated with allegorical figures representing the rivers, streams, forests, and towns that are Poly-Olbion’s topics. Most of these figures are women, most of these women are young, and most of them are naked. Both maps and poems, then, contribute to Poly-Olbion’s fulfillment of Drayton’s promise “To the Generall reader”: an erotically pleasing prospect of female fertility and vitality being made available to the possessing masculine view. On this reading, Poly-Olbion aligns itself with any number of early modern texts, ranging in genre from travel writing to love poetry,199 in which the discourses of exchange and possession function to blur the distinction between female body, commodity, and object of imperial expansion. Rhonda Lemke Sanford, for instance, has noted that the New World was “[o]ften figured as a woman to be ravished” in early modern English “literature of travel and exploration,” and numerous scholars have theorized the implications of this trend.200 My less ambitious aim here is to identify, in the English chorographical texts available to Elizabeth Tanfield as writing models, an ideological commitment other than monarchical absolutism to which she appears to have responded with interrogation and resistance, beginning with her work on Ortelius. As Katharine Pilhuj argues, Cary critiques the identification of women with “territorial possessions” in Mariam, in which Herod describes Mariam “as a jewel, … akin to the jewels and gold being plundered from the New World.”201 Elizabeth Cary’s Mirror, as we have already seen, reflects a similar distaste for the language of plunder and possession, while affirming women’s subjectivity. Nevertheless, Drayton does find a certain kind of creative vitality in sheer multiplicity, and this aesthetic Elizabeth rather embraces than rejects. In her dedication of the Mirror to Lee, Elizabeth describes what follows as a “viewe of the whole worlde” (2r), but it soon becomes clear that the kind of “viewe” she offers can in no way be synthesized into a single, coherent, comprehensive picture. Indeed, to the modern reader it may seem more accurate to say that the Mirror offers many different views: even in the absence of actual maps we must still, metaphorically, shift perspective with every new map description – sometimes radically.
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However, I do not mean by this to suggest that Elizabeth misunderstands the nature of the text she has chosen to translate. Rather, her use of the singular noun “viewe” reflects an aesthetic she understands very well: one shared with Ortelius by Lee and Drayton, whose work likewise privileges multiple perspectives over a single, authoritative perspective and likewise suggests that the most complete “viewe” can be achieved only with a constellation of diverse images. Observing that “[m]ultiplicity figures in the very title of Poly-Olbion,” Helgerson argues that “the representation of multiplicity is Drayton’s highest aesthetic goal”;202 it is certainly a goal to which he is strongly committed, not only in Poly-Olbion but also in England’s Heroicall Epistles, with its numerous narrative personae and multiple dedications. Drayton’s goal in Poly-Olbion, in its “country house” aspect at any rate,203 is to describe the many “wonders” found in “Albions glorious Ile,” while simultaneously asserting that “The sundry varying soyles, the pleasures infinite” are all aspects of one spirit: “Thou Genius of the place (this most renowned Ile)” (1.1, 2, 8). And it is worth noting that, as Falco reminds us, many of the “wonders” in Poly-Olbion are female “truth-tellers, viceroys, or generative maternal figures.”204 Similarly, it is by giving voice to a wide variety of powerful characters from English history, both male and female, that Drayton hopes in the Heroicall Epistles to do full justice to the English character. In his address “To the Reader,” he defends his title thus: “the most and greatest persons herein were English, or else … theyr loves were obtained in England. And though (heroicall) be properly understood of demi-gods, … yet is it also transferred to them who for the greatnes of minde come neere to Gods” (EHE, A 2). In this early work as in the later one, then, Drayton is celebrating the divine “Genius of the place” with a multiplicity of manifestations. In doing so, moreover, Drayton shows the influence of Lee and his circle, even as he rejects their identification of that English genius with Elizabeth Tudor. As Strong points out, the older Lee, along with the others of “his generation” who helped to develop the queen’s program of representation in the closing decades of the sixteenth century, “belonged to an era … whose pageantry, like its painting, depended for its form on multiplicity of incident.”205 Hackett points to the ideological significance of this dependence when she observes that although panegyrics of the 1590s often complimented Elizabeth by asserting “that the Queen’s excellences were beyond human depiction,” nevertheless “such statements of the failure of art often generated … not silence, but a profusion of words.”206 These poets should not be dismissed as disingenuous hypocrites; rather, their
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very “profusion of words” may be read as offering a positive alternative to the failure of a particular kind of art: that which attempts to convey a comprehensive view from a single perspective.207 According to the Ditchley Portrait’s design, no single description is adequate to convey Elizabeth Tudor’s divine self. According to Drayton in Poly-Olbion, it is the divinely wondrous land of England itself that can only be fully represented by a proliferation of allegorical figures, narratives, and images. And according to Ortelius, the globe itself is best understood as a multiplicity of marvels. In Ortelius’s folio atlases (the only works for which he actually wrote the accompanying map descriptions himself), as well as in the pocketsized derivates like L’Epitome, this emphasis on the wonderful is partly a function of commercial necessity. As Marcel van den Broecke explains, Ortelius “knew that many of the readers and buyers of his atlas were not so much interested in geographical truth, but rather in exciting, exotic wonders and miracles … Such information provided amusement and thrills … His habitual inclusion of miracles in his map texts caters for this kind of reader (and buyer) of his atlas.”208 Accordingly, in the Mirror we find that in “Scotlande” there “springeth a fountain in which ther moveh [sic] and swimmeth dropes of oile, the number whereof never diminisheth though there be some taken away, and though there be non the number doth not augment: which is a very admirable thinge” (6v). Elizabeth Tanfield was not motivated by profit in the same way as Ortelius and the publishers of the various derivates, but she translates such passages as these fully and accurately. Consequently, we learn from her that, in addition to this never-ending supply of Scottish oil, wonders that await the world traveller include children in Malta who “commonly plaie with Scorpions, and eate them without feling any harme or sicknes” (38v) and “a stoane-bridge” in Limaine “made of hard water wch is transformed into stoane running into a fountaine distant from the said river aboute 300 paces; in truth an admirable thinge, and a great miracle of Nature” (13r). The Mirror also resembles Poly-Olbion in that both depict a single geographical object (the globe of the world, the island of Great Britain) that is peopled by a multiplicity of cultures; both, furthermore, generally identify each particular culture with a particular region. Poly-Olbion makes much, for instance, of the competition between the Welsh and the English for primacy, and of the geographical boundaries that distinguish the two regions. In the Mirror, Elizabeth similarly distinguishes between “[t]he inh[abi]tants” of Scotland “which dwell on this side the mountaine [the Grampians],” who “are amiable well [mann]ered and speake the english language, and “those that dwell on the other side,” who “are uncivell
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people cruell and barbarous, theire habit and language beinge irish” (6r). On the verso of the same folio she elaborates on the latter point: those who inhabit Ireland “be very rude grosse and barbarouse, yet they be very much geven to musick in which they be well skilled” (6v). More often than not, each map description includes a brief description of the inhabitants’ character; the people of Namur, for instance, “are experte in warrs and obedient to their prince” (20v), whereas the people of Germany “will lodge both strayngers and freindes most willinglie. But since there is no nation but haith a synne, these are too much given to drinke” (18r). The Mirror also distinguishes more broadly between the Europeans, who “excell in … understanding” (3v), and the inhabitants of non-European Barbaria, who are “dull & of noe quick witt” (53v). To a considerable degree, then, the Mirror takes an essentialist view of regional character, particularly in its Eurocentrism. Even on this point, however, Elizabeth’s text raises questions. Whereas in the Mirror, natural marvels are usually characterized by their supernatural longevity or durability, as with the Scottish oil, Maltese children, and stony water mentioned earlier,209 cultural identities are considerably less fixed, even within a given geographical region. Elizabeth’s description of Greece, for instance, offers a detailed analysis of how the same race of people can show remarkably different characteristics at different times and in different places: This Countrie is a treue mirour of variable and inconstant fortune, for in tymes past it haith governed all other nations & Countries it is now subdued under the Yoke of the greate Turke, or under the servitude of the Venetians, which keepe some certaine Iles seated thereabouts, and in leiue w/h/eare it was woonte to be adorned w th all sciences and disciplines, at this præsente there remayneth nothing but grosse ignorance in all artes, resembling only their prædecessors in languages, and in certaine fashions wch they used especially in their auncient custome of drinking so much one to another … Commonly the grekes are attired after the manner of their prince. For those that obay the Tnrke are attired after the Tnrkes [sic] manner, or a la Turkesca, and if the venetians commaund over them they are arayed to the fashion of Venice. (40v) This people who were once chief among the Europeans for their understanding now resemble the “grosse” Irish in their “ignorance.” Whether they resemble the Turks or the Venetians in their fashion, moreover, is merely a matter of “variable and inconstant Fortune.”210
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Thus Elizabeth’s commitment to an aesthetic of multiplicity actually enables her to approach some of the ideologies important to her mentors and influences in fairly compatible fashion. As we have seen, both the Ditchley Portrait and Poly-Olbion function, at least in part, to essentialize English national character by imbuing the land itself with personality, while simultaneously subverting any attempts to do so. Lee, the deviser of the portrait, offers the Saxton map as an image of the current sovereign, a personality if there ever was one; Drayton represents the contrasts and conflicts between regions as the expression of a single genius loci. Both strategies, however, depend on establishing an identity between the political entity called “Englande” and the land onto which that name is mapped, an identity that both Ditchley Portrait and Poly-Olbion trouble in various ways. Similarly, the structure of Elizabeth’s Mirror assumes a meaningful association between culture, government, and geographical region, yet the individual map descriptions strongly suggest that cultural and political identities are sometimes more the children of Fortune than of Nature – and not just in Greece. For instance, we may read that although “[i]t seemeth that the Duchie of Savoy ought to appertaine to Fraunce, because it is situated of this side the mountes Neverthelesse it is governed by a particular prince who is likewise prince of Piedmonte” (14r). Elizabeth also acknowledges that the nation of England once included Calais, now lost (16v). The accuracy of Elizabeth’s translation of these passages suggests that she is alert and open to the evidence that there is no sure identity between the shape of the land and the shape of a nation’s political boundaries, let alone between the shape of the land and its ruler. Political boundaries are, according to the Mirror, anything but organic. Instead, Elizabeth consistently contrasts the many irrepressible “miracle[s] of Nature” she records with the transient products of failed human ambition, including those lines both visible and invisible that politicians and generals try to write onto the body of the globe. The close of “Nortgou or the Palatiny of Bavaria” offers a vivid example of such lines: “Charlemaine undertooke to have these 2 rivers gathered together by meanes of ditches, to the ende they might goe by water from Danubius to Rine[,] and to that effecte he sett many thousands on worke, but because of the continuall greate raine which fell from heaven at the same tyme, and bycause the soile is very sandye in those partes, all that which was digged in the daie tyme was filled againe in the night[,] and soe he desisted from his enterprice[.] There are yet some signes of these ditches by the towne of Weissenberge” (31v). L’Epitome attributes “la continuelle & grande pluye [the continual and great rain]” to the “ciel,” a word that may be translated as either “heaven” or “sky” (55v); by choosing the former for her transla-
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tion, Elizabeth evokes a divine power actively resisting human attempts to change the landscape. We also know that Elizabeth considered this map description important, by her addition of a small graphic symbol after the last word of the description (“Weissenberge”). Since this extra decoration, which invites the reader to pause and consider what he or she has just read before turning the page, is something Elizabeth adds to the ends of twenty-four of her ninety-three map descriptions, we may be reluctant to ascribe to it as much thematic significance as the rarer title embellishments. Nevertheless it is still unusual enough to suggest that Elizabeth found something to linger over in the passage’s concluding lines. And what she has found is the embarrassment at the hands of a divinely directed nature of one of the most famous – and most acquisitive – kings in European history. Furthermore, some of the most poignant and powerful passages in this translation deal with the destructive consequences of such ambition, and in so doing they stress just how vulnerable, arbitrary, and ephemeral all secular government really is.211 The Mirror explicitly points out what all English chorography is, at least on the surface, committed to denying: since divisions between political entities are not natural but rather arbitrary and thus subject to change, any nation may cease to exist at any time. This is a conclusion that Ortelius asserts explicitly, and it is a vision that Elizabeth takes very seriously, as witness her treatment of Greece, Turkey, and Carthage. Remarkably, the title she gives to her description of “Turkie,” devoted to describing Europe’s most dreaded enemy, is second only to Italy’s in ornateness. The text this title asks us to attend to includes the following stern warning: “You here behoulde the mightie Monarhy of the Turkes, which hath bene soe enlarged to this greatenesse, by our intestine warrs & cruel dissentions, within the space of lesse then 300 yeares … Amarathes the third threatneth us daie by daie to conquer all wch we have lefte us, and doubtlesse he will accomplish his p mise [i.e., “promise”], if wee doe not shortlie c/e/ase warring among ourselves” (48v). Here she allies herself with a long line of early modern poets who, as Helgerson compelling argues in Sonnet from Carthage, when faced with the triumph of empire and its attendant destruction, identify not with Aeneas but with Dido.212 Elizabeth also uses graphic design elements to draw attention to a similarly bleak vision, with which the description of Carthage concludes: “this Carthage is a treue mirour of the inconstancy of the Lordshippes, and govermentes of this worlde or to saie better a derision of men who repose truste and affiance vainely in humaine thinges, howe faire, stronge,
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noble pleasante, & magnificente soever they bee, for alwaies there cometh a daie to tourne all topsy turvy. This magnificente Architecture, greate populositie, invincible force, & abundant riches wch made it pompous, proude[,] and respected able to compare with the principall of the world. & now you se it is reduced into ashes, accounted of as a vile thinge & of noe worth or valewe” (Mirror, 52r). This is another one of the twenty-four map descriptions in the Mirror to the end of which Elizabeth adds a small graphic symbol; the effect of the description on her imagination may also be judged by the fact that the phrase “topsy turvy” reappears in Mariam, with similar cataclysmic associations, as I mentioned in the second part of this introduction. We have, then, good reason to conclude that Elizabeth may have considered such a description as this of Carthage to be a more “treue mirour” of the world she lived in than either the Ditchley Portrait or Poly-Olbion. It is in this vision of the transience of all earthly power, which must be taken to include the current English government, its church, and its “governours,” that the Mirror most radically counters the most overt interests and objects of all Elizabeth’s primary mentors and models. “Majestick Ruines” and the Place of the Female Subject We might ask what a child so young and sheltered as Elizabeth Tanfield could understand of such destruction and “inconstancy” as that experienced by the city of Carthage (Mirror, 52r), or such violent redesign as that imposed on the land of Nortgou at the hands of Charlemagne (Mirror, 31v). Yet our young translator, as she worked, was literally surrounded by imperfectly erased traces of England’s Roman Catholic past, traces of lives lived in a time when it still made some sense, to borrow the term coined by medieval cartographer Nicholas Howe, to call Rome “the capital of … England.”213 For the “magnificent building” she grew up in carried reminders of its medieval origins, not only in its name but also in its very fabric.214 Two “arches of a late 13th century arcade,” originally part of either the hall or the chapel of the hospital, are today striking features of the Priory’s hall, and although these were not moved into their present position until 1908, it appears they were incorporated into the structure that Lawrence Tanfield raised as well.215 Nor was this all. A “long section of wall that runs north/south within one of the corridors on the ground floor and reaches up to second floor level” is also “believed to have been part of the hospital”; this remarkably thick wall is unmistakably a remnant of former days (see figure 11).216 It is also possible that Tanfield’s rebuilding project exposed yet more evidence: “remains of what may be the foun-
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dations to some additional arches” have been located “under the front lawn,” and “[f]ragments of mediaeval masonry” were, reportedly, being “discovered” on the property for some time after Tanfield’s tenure.217 Such reminders of her home’s previous identity and of her nation’s Catholic past would have been as impossible for Elizabeth to ignore as they were risky for her to acknowledge. In the lived history of her own family’s very recent occupation of the Priory, furthermore, Elizabeth could read also that possession is contingent and uncertain; in the narrative of her own life as Lawrence Tanfield’s daughter and only child, expected to obey her parents unquestioningly until she married well and left home, she could read how little stability, liberty, or autonomy she herself might expect to enjoy under the present system. And I would argue that her translation of L’Epitome inaugurated a life-long concern with just these issues, a concern that expresses itself at least in part as a concern with the place of women, with women’s search for place, and with the options available to Protestant Englishwomen who find themselves subject to a hostile or uncongenial environment. In describing another precocious English girlhood, that of Mary Astell (b. 1666), Ruth Perry points out that her subject “had grown up wandering amidst the ruined monasteries and convents of Newcastle,” and argues that this fact helps to explain why Astell advocated for a sort of secular and temporary convent in her Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694). Because of her childhood experiences, Perry suggests, “The idea of monasteries did not seem in the least bit dangerous to” Astell.218 Even more domesticated was the monastery as Elizabeth Tanfield encountered it, for, as we have seen, she actually lived in the building that incorporated into its fabric visible reminders of the medieval hospital that had once dominated the landscape.219 Here the future recusant lived and studied among ever-present reminders of an alternative order to that which had given possession of the Priory to her father, reminders of former inhabitants whose lives had been shaped by very different affiliations, restrictions, and opportunities than hers was to be. This was the environment in which Elizabeth not only read Calvin and encountered the ideas of Lee and Drayton, but also learned just what was expected of her as daughter and sole child of Lawrence Tanfield. Although her father’s heir, all Elizabeth could really count on was a jointure upon marriage; the rest of her inheritance was subject to her father’s will and always contingent on the appearance of a male alternative. In 1597 Elizabeth could not have predicted that her father would one day disinherit her in favour of her eldest son, or that her husband would
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pressure her into giving up her jointure to him (Life, 194–5). However, she could not have been unaware of her parents’ long-standing preference for a male heir if one could be found: as Chamberlain records, even on the eve of Elizabeth’s marriage in 1602 the Tanfields were allowing for the possibility of having more (presumably male) children: “Here is talke of a match toward twixt … Sr Henry Cary and Mr Tanfields daughter w th 2000li presently, 2000li at two yeares, and 3000li at his death, if he chaunce to have more children, otherwise to be his heir.”220 Despite being an only child of wealthy parents, Elizabeth must have known from a very young age that she could lose the Priory as easily as her Catholic predecessors had lost it. Her Mirror does not, of course, confront the subject of local dissolution; as we have seen, despite her faithful transmission of L’Epitome’s general insistence on the ever-present possibility of change, Elizabeth’s description of England specifically is silent on religion and reformation. Nevertheless, if we read this silence in its larger context, we may find that Elizabeth’s Mirror as a whole does confront one of the most difficult questions to engage Elizabeth’s chorographical models and mentors, namely, whether and how to acknowledge England’s Catholic past. There are no monasteries marked on the Saxton maps or the Ditchley Portrait; “An inventory of the symbols used by Saxton would,” according to Klein, “have no more than five relevant entries – the signs for hills, rivers, settlements of various forms, enclosed parks and trees.”221 The “various forms” of settlement that Saxton does have symbols for enable him to distinguish between city, town, village, hamlet, house, and castle, but he has no symbol for ruins.222 In this way Saxton avoids the sort of trouble faced by chorographers like Camden, who did choose to acknowledge England’s former monasteries in his Britannia and, as a consequence, faced so much criticism that for the sixth edition (1607, translated into English by Philémon Holland in 1610) he added the following defence: There are certaine, as I heare who take it impatiently that I have mentioned some of the most famous Monasteries and their founders. I am sory to heare it, and with their good favour will say thus much, They may take it as impatiently, and peradventure would have us forget that our ancestoures were, and we are of the Christian profession when as there are not extant any other more conspicuous, and certaine Monuments, of their piety, and zealous devotion toward God. Neither were there any other seedgardens from whence Christian Religion, and good learning were
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propagated over this isle, howbeit in corrupt ages some weeds grew out over-ranckly.223 It is hard to think that Elizabeth was not familiar with Britannia by 1597, given its popularity and given the chorographical interests of Elizabeth’s circle. Four Latin editions were printed between 1586 and 1594, and Latin was a language Elizabeth “understood … perfectly when she was young,” according to the Life (186). Britannia was also a source of the same 1597 Heroicall Epistles that features Drayton’s dedication to Elizabeth.224 In the work of Drayton’s friend Camden, then, Elizabeth could have read (albeit in Latin) of the “sudden floud (as it were) breaking thorow the banks with a maine streame, [which] fell upon the Ecelesiasticall State of England, which whiles the world stood amazed, and England groned thereat, bare downe and utterly overthrew the greatest part of the Clergie, together with their most goodly and beautifull houses.”225 Of course she could not yet have read Camden’s 1607 defence, but she did not need to wait until then to understand that Camden had done something much more risky and controversial than Saxton had. In Poly-Olbion Drayton strives to take the middle way, and I would argue that in her Mirror Elizabeth does so as well. The maps that accompany Drayton’s Songs in Poly-Olbion feature few human-built landmarks of any kind, and the texts make very few references to monasteries, but Poly-Olbion does not entirely ignore England’s Catholic past; nor, in keeping with its aesthetic of multiplicity, does it present only one attitude towards that past. Furthermore, although Poly-Olbion is not a translation as the Mirror is, here too we find that neither the positive nor the negative comments can be directly attributed to the one who is ostensibly recording them. In 1613, a new edition of Poly-Olbion advertised the addition of “A Table to the Chiefest Passages, in the Illustrations” (305). From this table (compiled by John Selden), the reader looking for information on monasteries would conclude that Poly-Olbion’s contents were politically correct: the table contains no entry under “Monasteries” and only one entry on “Monks.” This directs us to a passage on “Monks of old and later time” in Selden’s Illustrations to the Eleventh Song (310), in which Selden condemns monks of “later times” as “idle lubberly sots,” and then enters into a diatribe against the “dissembled bestiall sensualities of Monastique profession, that in the universall visitation under Hen. VIII. every Monasterie afforded shamefull discoverie of Sodomites and Incontinent Friers” (1613 Poly-Olbion, 186, 187). The identical passage appears in the 1612 edition as well, although there is no table to direct us to it (Poly-Olbion, 186,
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187). However, in no edition is there an index or table to Drayton’s songs themselves; it is not nearly so easy to find out what he – or his innumerable dramatis personae – has to say on the subject. In one early passage, Drayton seems committed to resisting the erasure from memory of England’s Catholic monastic past. Ochy Cavern begins by addressing the Isle of Avalon, but her encomium soon turns to Glastonbury and its former inhabitants: “O three times famous Ile, where is that place that might / Be with thy selfe compar’d for glorie and delight, / Whilst Glastenbury stood? exalted to that pride, / Whose Monasterie seem’d all other to deride? / O who thy ruine sees, whom wonder doth not fill / With our great fathers pompe, devotion, and their skill?” (Poly-Olbion, 3.293–8). However, these words of praise are qualified by such ambiguous terms as “pride” and “pompe,” and all of them, moreover, are spoken by the Cavern. They are not to be taken as either Drayton’s opinion or that of his Muse. Even more remarkable for its balance of nostalgic reverence with politic discretion is the partly silenced aside that Drayton gives to the river Camell in his First Song. Whereas Drayton’s Muse “uttereth to her selfe” a few lines earlier, Camell “muttreth to her selfe” the following subversive sentiment: “‘Time cannot make such waste, but something wil appeare, / To shewe some little tract of delicacie there. / Or some religous worke, in building manie a day, / That this penurious age hath suffred to decay, / Some lim or modell, dragd out of the ruinous mass, / The richness will declare in glorie whilst it was’” (Poly-Olbion, 1.133, 192, 194–200). In a work that purports to celebrate the timeless vitality of England, Drayton here suggests that England’s Catholic identity may itself participate in that immortality. Once again, however, the words are spoken by one of Drayton’s many allegorical figures; and given the constant debate and conflict that Drayton imagines going on between these figures, it would be easy for him to disavow such sentiments. Nevertheless, we may read the river Camell’s performance here as symbolic of Drayton’s own strategy throughout Poly-Olbion: a strategy that severely limits pro-Catholic sentiment to occasional, brief, and qualified expressions, while endowing these expressions with the authenticity and power of something that simply cannot be entirely suppressed. Elizabeth’s method in the Mirror, in my view, achieves an effect similar to that produced by the Camell’s muttered aside, for hers is a gesture that gains our attention only through its restraint. As we have already seen, Elizabeth’s treatment of L’Epitome’s description of Italy conveys an acknowledgment and subtle endorsement of what may be found there, while
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her treatment of L’Epitome’s description of England conveys a subtle lack of enthusiasm for what may be found there. The rest of the Mirror reinforces the implied distinction, furthermore, by stressing the ubiquity of Catholicism on the European continent, and by doing so in consistently positive terms, while having nothing to say about England’s religious landscape and little good to say about European Protestantism. L’Epitome earned that “Approbation” to which, as we have seen, Elizabeth’s title gestures: indeed “Nihil habet contra Catholicam fidem [this book contains nothing contrary to the Catholic faith]” (L’Epitome, 94v). And although we do on at least one occasion find Elizabeth catering to her audience’s tastes with Calvinist discourse (see textual note 505), this in itself hardly undermines the orthodoxy of her source. Catholic monasteries, bishoprics, archbishoprics, and so on, feature prominently in the Mirror’s description of other European countries and are often enumerated in detail, as in this full and faithful translation of “The Bishoprik of SALTZBOURGE”: The Bishopricke of Saltbourge is the beste of the five Bisshopricks which are in the Countrie of Bavaria situate wholly betwene the mountaines … About it there are faire mountaines full of Prieryes … There arrived into this Countrie of Bavaria St Rupert borne of royall Parentage, byshoppe of Wormes, and converted many unto the Christian faith and baptized in the towne of Reigenbourge Duke Teudo and all his Courte and many others traveling aboute the Countrie and preachinge the gospell. In the einde being come to Saltzbourge, and seinge the place was fitt to builde a byshoppes seate he edified with the consente of the Duke a fair church in the honour of St Peter, likewise a faire Cloister of the order of St Benitt. Nott longe after the Duke made and constituted him Byshopp of this place and he kepte the seate about 44 yeares. This Byshoprick since was erected into an Archbishopricke. (Mirror, 30v) Elizabeth’s style in this passage is representative, in that the original text offers its translator much opportunity for subtle criticism, yet she takes none. Instead, she omits not one detail and repeats that the “church” and “cloister” adorning this landscape are both “fair.” This complimentary acknowledgment of Europe’s Catholicism is especially significant when we recall that Elizabeth’s source text also ignores England’s Protestant present, neglecting to mention either its universities (centres of theological study and debate) or the Church of England’s royal head.
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Elizabeth will go on to write about other queens, of course, including a queen of England: Isabel, the French-born queen of Edward II. Edward’s Isabel and Herod’s Mariam differ significantly, however, from the queen featured in the Ditchley Portrait, which celebrates a female figure who possesses all and is possessed by none, a queen whose liberty of movement was dramatically performed in Elizabeth Tanfield’s own home in 1592. Both of Elizabeth Cary’s queens, by contrast, feel trapped and vulnerable in their marriages to neglectful or tyrannical husbands; as other critics have observed, both are central figures in texts that problematize the value and virtue of domestic confinement.226 Neither, despite her high status, inhabits a political realm or geographical place in which she can move freely or stand firm. For these reasons, both Mariam and Edward II resemble Elizabeth’s Mirror in offering a nuanced but sympathetic treatment of women who live restricted lives under strict rule. Nonetheless, none of these three works endorses such rebellious solutions as physical emigration or revolution – both of which are journeys of a kind, whether towards a land newly found or one newly remade. In confronting the uncertainties and discomforts to be met with in their worlds, other English women writers have drawn atlases of Utopia; Margaret Cavendish’s escape fantasy, The Blazing World (1666), is a good example. Neither as a child nor as a young adult, however, does Elizabeth Tanfield Cary entirely endorse the geographical cure for earthly powerlessness, no matter how keenly she may feel its attractions. It has often been observed that exhortations to women to be content to stay home obsess the Chorus and haunt the conscience of Cary’s tragic hero, Mariam, and her Isabel struggles similarly. Through dramatizing these struggles, Cary explores the ethics and consequences of relocation in both Mariam and Edward II.227 Mariam’s resistance of her impulse “to range” beyond Herod’s tyrannical reach finds no earthly reward (Mariam, 1.1.26), whereas Salome’s ambition to move to another country ends well for her: by the end of the play, with Constabarus dead, no impediments remain to Salome’s plan to marry her Silleus and move to Arabia, where, if the laws are not already more congenial, she has some hope of changing them (Mariam, 1.5). However, this willingness to cross boundaries exacts a high price from others, including Salome’s husband and her sister-inlaw, Mariam. For most of Edward II Isabel resembles Mariam in both her suffering and her virtue; however, when she chooses to resist actively by going somewhere other than where she is, Isabel’s story begins increasingly to resemble Salome’s, at first in the successful outcome of her actions and, finally, in their human and moral cost. Of the three, only Mariam
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dies within the time period encompassed by Cary’s narrative, but Mariam dies exonerated. Salome and Isabel, by contrast, both achieve increased (if imperfect) autonomy, but both sacrifice their integrity to do so. Like Mariam, Cary’s Isabel has good reason to resent and resist her situation as the wife of an unjust king. Desperate for support against her neglectful husband and his “daring favourite” Spencer (Edward II, 62), Cary’s Isabel flees across the channel to her brother, the King of France, to whom she presents herself as “your most unhappie Sister, the true picture of a dejected Greatness, that bears the grief of a despised Wedlock, which makes me flie to you for help and succour” (Edward II, 96). Such sympathetic treatment of Isabel’s situation legitimizes the fear she expresses that, if she returns home, “she should be surely mew’d, and kept from Gadding” (Edward II, 104). Yet although Cary acknowledges the remarkable triumph of Isabel’s victorious return, she also makes clear that none of Isabel’s “Gadding” yields the happiness hoped for. Isabel does briefly prosper when she seeks moral and military support from her allies and relatives in France, but her hopes there are ultimately deceived, leading her to exclaim against the land of her birth in one of the text’s most poignant passages: “[T]hou to me art like a graceless mother, that suckles not, but basely sells her children” (Edward II, 108). Instead of finding identity and community at journey’s end, she finds betrayal and disappointment. At this moment she belongs nowhere. Eventually Isabel does find sympathy and support from Sir John of Hainault and so is able to return to England with a victorious army, wresting the crown from her husband and installing her son in his place. But at this point in the narrative, as Gwynne Kennedy astutely observes, Cary’s tone changes: “For much of Cary’s history, Isabel is portrayed as a long suffering wife,” but “As her power increases, and with it the likelihood of Edward’s capture, the text suggests a more equivocal attitude towards Isabel’s enterprise.”228 It is certain that, as Tina Krontiris points out, Cary does not explicitly blame Isabel for seeking power and puts most of the blame for Edward’s death on Mortimer.229 Nevertheless, despite the great sympathy she expresses for Isabel’s cause, for her plight as a wife, and for England’s plight as a neglected and mistreated nation, Cary ultimately condemns Isabel as vain and ambitious (Edward II, 150). Furthermore, despite her much less selfish intentions at the start, Isabel ends up resembling Salome in that the price for her freedom, too, is the happiness of others. Although the English welcome Isabel’s coup, writes Cary, their lot is not improved by it: “They finde the State little altered, onely things are thought more handsomly carried” (Edward II, 143). The only real change
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the coup brings about is Edward II’s “untimely Death and Ruine” (Edward II, 156). I am arguing, then, that Edward II, Mariam, and Mirror all suggest that Elizabeth Tanfield Cary was, from her early youth, haunted by the possibility of political, physical, social, and spiritual ruin, whether inflicted by tyrannical injustice or self-imposed. She uses forms of the word “ruin” nine times in the Mirror, including the powerful description of Carthage quoted earlier in this introduction. In none of these cases does the adjective describe an individual; in Edward II, however (where her mature style is also unrestricted by the exigencies of translation), Cary repeatedly uses the image of a ruined building as a metaphor for an individual human being who has been treated unjustly by his or her government. The first such individual is “[t]he angry [English] Souldier, that with his blood had purchas’d his experience, beholds with sorrow, Buffoons preferr’d, while he, like the ruines of some goodly Building, is left to the wide world, without use or reparation” (Edward II, 21). The second is the English queen. In a remarkable passage of free indirect discourse, Cary imagines that the noble Earl of Hainault and his brother Sir John read Isabel herself as a ruin: “The earl … esteeming it a Vertue fit his greatness, to be the Patron of Majestick Ruines … had a Brother youthful, strong, and valiant, one that lov’d Arms, and made them his profession; this man observ’d the Queen, and sees her sorrow, which deeply sunk, and mov’d a swift Compassion: when he beheld a Misery so great and glorious, a structure of such worth, so fair and lovely, forsaken, unfrequented, and unfurnisht, by the curst hand of an unworthy Landlord, he vows within himself to help repair it” (Edward II, 109–10). Cary puts these words in one of her characters’ mouths; she does not offer the opinion as her own. Nevertheless, these two passages taken together do raise the possibility that a ruler or husband who treats people as Isabel has been treated is a “curst” and “unworthy Landlord.” By the image of a neglected and ruined building we may understand a neglected and ruined woman. Cary’s image of “Majestick Ruines” here evokes the sort of landscape familiar to many post-Reformation English, the one acknowledged by both Camden and Drayton, if not by Saxton or Lee. In the Saxton and Ditchley versions of England, Elizabeth Tudor’s place and her body are both her own; Lee’s Gloriana is not even confined to the surface of the planet she hovers over. Nonetheless, a central theme here is that no English subject, male or female, should aspire to like autonomy. However, as a child of strict parents, and as a young woman expected to make an advantageous marriage, Elizabeth Tanfield could identify nei-
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ther with the singularly autonomous Virgin Queen depicted in the Ditchley Portrait nor with the conquering male monarchs Drayton would soon feature in the queen’s stead. In reality, her place is not that different from the place occupied by the nymphs in Drayton’s Poly-Olbion, desirable not for themselves but for the land to which they are attached. For someone in such a position, I would argue, the Ditchley Portrait represents an unattainable ideal in its image of autonomous English womanhood, while both portrait and Poly-Olbion represent also an unwelcome reality in their figuration of domestic subjection. This Elizabeth understood to contain a high risk of ruin. So if one cannot be landlady, two questions remain: how to respond to an “unworthy Landlord,” and how to find a worthy “Landlord.” For Elizabeth Cary personally, the answers to this question may have changed in the years following her public conversion, when she more than once took action to take or send her children from one geographical spot to another in order to ensure that they would receive what she considered the necessary education in Catholicism. However, although we may see in her corpus a developing respect for the sometime necessity of travel, her distrust of travellers’ motives and her respect for virtual community appear to remain constant. In the second part of this introduction, I argued that Elizabeth Tanfield’s translation of L’Epitome conveys concern for the reality of localized oppression combined with a sensitivity to the roles maps play in the process of exporting oppression; here I would further argue that this aspect of her youthful work anticipates her mature work. For we find a similar attitude to practical cartography in Edward II, in which the only people Cary imagines using anything like maps are the enemies of Isabel, who by the help of the treacherous Bishop of Exeter, “the Landskip of her Travels soon survey’d” (Edward II, 109). Armchair travel is in Cary’s view something quite different – though perhaps “closet travel” would be the more accurate term. In my earlier reading of Elizabeth’s dedication to her uncle, I suggested that she there raises the possibility that intellectual and creative “travailes” in one’s library may be the equivalent to physical “travailes” through the nations of the world; here I would suggest that we find a similar theme being developed in her mature work. For in the manuscript sonnet to Queen Henrietta Maria that Cary wrote to accompany the Reply, Cary imagines that queen as having the power to effect (with the assistance of the written word) a virtuous and transformative kind of virtual visitation: “It is your heart (your pious zealous heart) / That by attractive force, bringes great PERROONE / To leave his SEYNE, his LOYRE, and his GARROONE: / And to your handmaide THAMES his
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guiftes imparte.”230 Even after the passage of so many years, Cary seems not to have forgotten the discourse of the map description and itinerary with their carefully ordered landmarks, but she employs it here in order to critique the necessity of its practical application. For Elizabeth Cary, then, the Reply has the power to erase boundaries and collapse distance; for Elizabeth Tanfield, I believe, the Mirror has the same power. And in it, I argue, she may have begun the process of constructing the Roman Church as the alternative place to go to for one who both longs for escape but cannot hope to travel (her time in Ireland not yet imagined), who distrusts secular authority in general, and who yet chooses to remain loyal to the authority under which she finds herself. Paul Binding reports that “Pietro Bizzari believed that as a result of” Ortelius’s atlas, “all the different countries might eventually lie down together as serenely as they did on its artistically designed pages.”231 If Elizabeth’s own vision was not so Utopian, she appears nonetheless to have been deeply interested in the possibility of re-imagining and reconfiguring community that such a work suggests. Much of Elizabeth’s Mirror is given to historical particulars: details of battles won and lost, of victors triumphant and towns razed, of the exercise of contingent, short-lived, and morally questionable authority. Her immediate environment, the walls of the Priory, themselves bore witness to a local history of shifting allegiances and violent coups. Yet in the conversations that took place within those walls, she would have witnessed some degree of intellectual community, and in one of the books she read there, namely L’Epitome, she may have discovered an alternative allegiance that offered the hope of moral integrity at least, if not physical. In her Mirror, Elizabeth’s solution to the threat of ruin is not to write over the traces of England’s violent past and unstable present or to glorify revolt, but instead to celebrate an Italy of no particular place or time: “the Queene of Christendome, and the princesse of the world” (Mirror, 34r). Certainly membership in a virtual community was the only aspect of Catholicism readily available to an English subject of Protestant Tudor England, and to this fact, as well, the walls of the Priory bore silent witness. The Italy of the Mirror is, as we have seen, a country where secular power and politics are irrelevant, and of which any European may become a citizen. What a contrast to this “queene” is that other queen whom our translator was holding in her mind’s eye: Lee’s Protestant queen whose self-representations stressed her own autonomy as ruler, England’s insularity vis-à-vis “Christendome” and England’s growing imperial ambitions vis-à-vis “the world” beyond its borders. Unable to look forward to having
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control over any of that good sheep-grazing land, often herself subject to enclosure, Elizabeth would eventually refuse to be the good English sheep – to be, that is, either an obedient wife or the member of any Protestant shepherd’s flock. In translating L’Epitome she paid an early visit to a land that rules all people, yet has no human ruler: a virtual nation whose citizenry is the communion of saints. It is an ideal Italy for which one needs no map, a place best realized through language.
notes
1 According to Heather Wolfe, “At least four different hands contribute to the manuscript. Handwriting evidence suggests that Lucy is the main scribe, while at least three other hands supply emendations and additions” (Wolfe, “Textual Introduction to Life,” 87). 2 Life says she was born in either 1585 or 1586. It also records that she died in October 1639 at the age of either fifty-three or fifty-four (275); this again gives a birthdate of 1585 or 1586. Life also asserts that she was only fifteen when she was married in September 1602 (188); this would mean that she could have been born no earlier than late 1586, if the writer is correct about her age upon marriage. However, I am not aware of corroborating evidence. 3 Prior and Community, Burford Priory, 1. W.H. Godfrey suggests that the hospital was founded by William, Earl of Gloucester, in which case it “was probably erected in his lifetime, that is before 1183” (Godfrey, “Burford Priory,” 72). 4 Edmund Harman refers to the property in his will, dated 17–18 March 1576 [1577] as “my house at Burford comonly knowen by the name of ye priorty of Sainte John the Evangelist” (PROB 11/59, Public Records Office, Richmond). 5 “Hotel Heritage and History.” Hotel website. 6 Raymond Moody and Joan Moody, A Thousand Years of Burford, 20. 7 As Balfour explains, those signing over the property were “William and Mary Johnson [Harman’s son-in-law and daughter], Edmund and Agnes Bray and Olive Wood (daughter of James Harman),” and they delivered the property “to Edward Ayleworth (son-in-law to Edmund Bray) and Robert Silvester (presumably a nephew of Agnes Harman/Silvester and thus a first cousin of Edmund Bray) as trustees” (Michael Balfour, Edmund Harman, 14). 8 Balfour, Edmund Harman, 14. See also endnote 217. 9 The alternative explanation is that she did remember the massive project of construction, necessarily accompanied by demolition, and wished not to dwell on it. 10 For an excellent overview of how the attribution of Edward II was established, see Margaret Reeves, “From Manuscript to Printed Text.” 11 Marion Wynne-Davies, “Familial Influence,” 223.
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12 This source was first identified in print in my article “The Source and Date of Elizabeth Tanfield Cary’s Manuscript The Mirror of the Worlde.” However, at that time the Bodleian Library had not yet realized the error of the staff person who first made copies of the manuscript’s pages, and this article reflects their original record that fol. 48 was missing from the manuscript when it was placed on deposit. In fact the folio is not missing. 13 Full bibliographical descriptions of these and of every atlas published under the name of Ortelius up until the mid-seventeenth century, based on a survey of more than 1,500 libraries worldwide, may be found in the third volume of the magisterial Koeman’s Atlantes Neerlandici by the cartobibliographer Peter van der Krogt (KAN, IIIA). Each entry also provides a detailed description of the atlas’s contents as well as notes on all known variants. 14 Kenneth Murdock, The Sun at Noon, 10. 15 DNB, s.v. “Elizabeth Cary.” 16 Until Murdock’s identification was challenged by this editor in 2004, any Cary critic since Murdock who mentioned the Mirror at all identified this same volume as ET ’s source; these include Barry Weller and Margaret W. Ferguson (introduction to Mariam, 4), Stephanie Hodgson-Wright (Introduction to Mariam, 39), and Wolfe (Introduction to Life and Letters, 26n59). Patricia Demers in 2005 gives KAN, 332:01/02 as ET ’s source (Demers, Women’s Writing in English, 94). 17 KAN, 31:301 (1572), 31:311 (1574), 31:321 (1582), 31:331 (1587), 31:351 (1598). See Appendix A. 18 KAN, 331:11 (Le Miroir du Monde 1579), 331:112 (Le Miroir du Monde 1583), 332:01 (Epitome du Théâtre du Monde 1588), 332:02 (Epitome du Théâtre du Monde 1590), 332:03 (Epitome du Théâtre du Monde 1598), 332:04 (Abrégé du Théâtre d’Ortelius 1602), 333:11 (L’Epitome du Théâtre de l’Univers 1602), 334:01 (Le Miroir du Monde 1598). See Appendix A. 19 Trans. Anna Beth Kirk Rose. 20 Abraham Ortelius, Thesaurus Geographicus, s.v. “Zelandt.” 21 For instance, Elizabeth correctly translates “Sardaigne” (L’Epitome, 68v) as “Sardinia” (Mirror, 38v) and “Danemarch” (L’Epitome, 46v) as “Denmarke” (Mirror, 26). Some of her translations of the names of towns and cities are even more impressive. Yet she fails to translate correctly some names we might expect her to know, as when she renders “Alemaigne” (L’Epitome, 31v) as “Alemany” (Mirror, 18r), even though “Germania” is the Latin title of the map facing her target text (L’Epitome, 32r). 22 We may infer that Elizabeth drew in part on her knowledge of French and English generally, in part on other print texts, such as Ortelius’s Thesaurus or William Camden’s Britannia, and in part on consultation with a widely travelled or widely read adult, such as her uncle or her tutor. 23 The 1588 version of “Afrique” has no comma after “Algier” in the list “Maroco, Fessa, Algier & Tunis, &c” (3v), whereas both the 1590 Epitome and the Mirror have a comma after “Algier [Allgier]” (1590 Epitome, 3v; Mirror, 4v). Similarly, the
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25 26 27
28 29
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1588 version of “Afrique” has no comma after “Royaume de Nubie” (Mirror, 3v), whereas both the 1590 version and Elizabeth’s translation do have commas in the equivalent location. Consider the innovative use of parentheses in her translation of “Bretagne.” In both the 1588 and 1590 version, L’Epitome reads “& leurs dioceses sont Cornuaille, les habitans de laquelle sont dits Cornubiens; S. Paul, & Treguiers” (16v). Elizabeth renders this as follows, in what is arguably an improvement: “and their Dioceses be CORNWALL (whereof the inhabitantes be called Cornubiens) Saint PAUL and TREGUIERS” (“Britanye,” Mirror, 11v). The decision to elect him “was made on St. George’s Day (23 April) 1597,” and the installation took place on 23 May (E.K. Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 172). Roy Strong, Cult, 173. These two verse epistles are “William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolke, to Queene Margarit,” 44–7; “Queene Margarit to William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolke,” 48–51. This dedication remained in every edition of EHE until 1619, in contrast to the 1597 dedications to “Lord Monteagle and Lord Henry Howard, [which] were removed after the 1597 edition appeared and before the 1598 was printed” (Brink, Drayton Revisited, 60). From the 1619 edition (printed as part of Poems), the dedication to ET has, however, been removed and not replaced; the epistles have no dedicatee thenceforward. Given that the precocious child of the dedication was by this time a middle-aged matron, Drayton’s decision to remove the dedication need not be construed as a withdrawal of respect, although it may also signify declining hopes for significant patronage from Lady Falkland. Jean R. Brink’s full-length study offers a thorough analysis of Drayton’s work in the context of his lifelong, and frequently disappointed, quest for patronage. Helen Hackett, Virgin Mother, Maiden Queen, 187. I agree with Bernard H. Newdigate that this is “[t]he tenderest and most touching of all Drayton’s dedications” (Michael Drayton and His Circle, 77). However, Newdigate’s assessment focuses on the personal connection between ET and Drayton, while glossing over the academic. Newdigate’s influential 1941 biography popularized the notion that Drayton was raised at Polesworth Hall as a page in the Goodere household, that Frances’s sister Anne was the “Idea” of Drayton’s sonnets, and that Drayton and “Frances may have learned from the same tutor” (Newdigate, Drayton and His Circle, 17–18). Brink, however, argues convincingly that the story of “Drayton’s sheltered youth at Polesworth was invented by Oliver Elton in 1895” as part of a program of “gentrification” (Jean R. Brink, Drayton Revisited, 3); what little evidence we have of Drayton’s early years makes it clear that, “[a]lthough Drayton may have visited Polesworth, he did not grow up with Sir Henry’s daughters” (ibid., 6). In fact, in 1598 Drayton testified “in a suit against the [Polesworth] Gooderes” on behalf of another branch of the family, in whose “Collingham, Nottingham, household” he “had been a servant” for a period of time that may have begun as early as 1573, when he was ten years old, and that continued at least until 1585 (ibid., 5, 6).
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31 Peter van der Krogt, e-mail to the editor, 5 August 2003. 32 It is interesting to note that many years later, another translation by Elizabeth Tanfield, now Viscountess Falkland, namely, The Reply of the Most Illustrious Cardinall of Perron to the Answeare of the Most Excellent King of Great Britaine, the First Tome, would boldly feature on its title page “a printer’s mark depicting the seal of the Society of Jesus” (Karen L. Nelson, “Translating du Perron,” 147). 33 Wolfe, introduction to Life and Letters, 81. Mary Beth Long’s observation that nuns “in the convent at Cambrai” (one of whom was the daughter who wrote the Life) “identified first as their fathers’ daughters and second as preservers of Catholic culture” is also relevant here (Mary Beth Long, “The Life as Vita,” 304). 34 It is also noteworthy in this context that the “situation” for Catholic minorities in England “was worst in the later sixteenth century,” significantly improving by the 1620s (Christine Kooi, “Minority Catholicism in Early Modern Europe,” 149). 35 See Alexandra G. Bennett’s overview of such criticism in “Female Performativity,” 293–309. 36 This is not to deny that there must always be an element of subjectivity in determining significance and that much remains to be made of the many thousands of choices Elizabeth makes of diction and syntax in her translation. 37 Reeves, “From Manuscript to Printed Text,” 139. 38 In 1624, for instance, the inhabitants of Great Tew, which Tanfield had purchased ten years previously, petitioned the House of Lords against their new landlord, alleging that he had violated their traditional rights to common pasturage, had enclosed common land, and had committed other instances of “harshness, if not of fraud” (J.A.R. Marriott, Viscount Falkland, 50). 39 John Chamberlyn, “Certaine Notes.” It is doubtful that this John Chamberlyn is the same man as the urbane letter writer John Chamberlain (1553–1628), the son of Richard Chamberlain of London, whom I cite elsewhere in this introduction. Almost nothing is known of the life of that well-known Chamberlain between 1575 and 1597, the year he began his correspondence with Dudley Carleton, but it is unlikely that Lee employed him since, “[t]hanks to an inheritance from his father and later substantial legacies from two of his brothers, Chamberlain never had to earn a living” (DNB, s.v. “John Chamberlain”). See also Edward Phillips Statham, introduction to A Jacobean Letter-Writer, xiii. Chambers suggests that the writer of this letter was “John Chamberlain of Claydon in Bucks, probably of the Shirburn family, and possibly the John Chamberlain who dwelt at Chaucer’s house in Woodstock” (Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 54). 40 In a similar vein, she also omits from “Flaunders” (Mirror, 21v) L’Epitome’s brief discussion of why “Flandre Imperiale” is considered “la vraye Flandre” (“Flandres,” L’Epitome, 39v). 41 Bernhard Klein, Maps and the Writing of Space, 3. 42 Peter Barber, “England II,” 58. 43 B.W. Beckingsale, Burghley, 223. As Barber points out, Burghley collected maps and atlases throughout his life. Eventually, “manuscript maps that he considered
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particularly informative were incorporated into specially compiled atlases … One … related predominantly to foreign affairs and had at its core Ortelius’s atlas of 1570. The other, centered on the proof sheets for Saxton’s atlas, was clearly intended mainly for consultation on British affairs. These two volumes served as Burghley’s main geographical references on foreign and domestic policy and administration from 1570 to the time of his death” (Barber, “England II,” 73–4). J.H. Andrews, “Geography and Government,” 180. P.D.A. Harvey, Maps in Tudor England, 47–8. Andrews, “Geography and Government,” 180. Harvey, Maps in Tudor England, 48. Beckingsale, Burghley, 223. Barber, “England II,” 58. Klein demonstrates that “[u]ltimately, the surveyor’s ‘view’ is identical with the perspective of power” in his compelling argument that, in the “agrarian sphere … applied Euclidean knowledge helped establish a pattern not of truth but of covetous property relations – by facilitating, for instance, the practice of enclosures,” a pattern which led to “not only an increasingly instrumental understanding of the relationship between tenant and lord but a whole new conception of agrarian space” (Klein, Maps and the Writing of Space, 59, 46). As Barber notes, “lawyers and those involved in legal disputes began from about 1400 … to use sketch plans to illustrate, and when possible to clarify, disputes over rights, ownership, and jurisdiction” (Barber, “England I,” 27). Lesley B. Cormack, Charting an Empire, 1. Barber, “England I,” 32. According to Barber, “Elyot’s words … were to have an enormous influence on the next and following generations, for his book was reprinted at least seven times before the 1850s” (32). For a review of “sixteenthcentury educational reforms” in this context, including Elyot, see Cormack, Charting an Empire, 22. Thomas Elyot, The Boke Named the Governour, 21v. Ibid., 21r–21v. Ibid., 13r. Ibid., 17r. Juan Luis Vives, Instruction of a Christian Woman, trans. Hyrde, A4v. Graham Parry, “The Great Picture of Lady Anne Clifford,” 214. Elyot, The Boke Named the Governour, 31v. Ibid., 31r. Ibid. Andrews, “Geography and Government,” 181. Klein, Maps and the Writing of Space, 45. Compare the quite different handling of the story in Shawe’s edition, aimed at a Protestant readership: he writes only that “this cittie was helde by a greate crewe of Anabaptists,” making no mention of what they did to the city’s inhabitants. He also takes the time to identify the Anabaptists’ king by name, although he does add that this king was “punished accordinge to his deserts” (44v).
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66 Christopher Tabraham, e-mail to the editor, 15 January 2009. 67 William Camden, “‘Scotland,’” Britain, trans. Holland, 14. Ortelius stayed with Camden during part of his temporary exile in England (Binding, Imagined Corners, 269–71), and Ortelius “had urged him to compile the Britannia so that Britain could be fully known to the circles of humanist scholarship in Europe” (Parry, “The Great Picture of Lady Anne Clifford,” 214). 68 It is also worth noting that “Pucelles” invokes La Pucelle, or Joan of Arc, the ardent Catholic who had many Scots serving in her army against England. 69 Ortelius, Abraham Ortelius His Epitome of the Theater of the World. By M. Coignet. London: J. Shawe, 1603. †8v. 70 One of many anecdotes of Lady Tanfield’s harshness is the accusation that she told “the tenants of Great Tew that they were ‘more worthy to be ground to powder than to have any favour shewed’” (quoted in Wolfe, “Textual Introduction to Life,” 103n3). Both she and her husband were also accused before the House of Lords of cheating people in various ways, including but not limited to taking bribes (Marriott, Viscount Falkland, 47–8), and although they defended themselves successfully against the charges, their granddaughter still felt compelled to address the issue of bribery in the Life, written decades later (185). Raymond Moody and Joan Moody report that, in one Burford tradition, “Lady Tanfield is said to have acquired the status of a queen of darkness who, in times of crisis or if the river ran dry, might ride over the roofs of the town” (Burford, 9). 71 Nancy A. Gutierrez, “Valuing Mariam,” 234. 72 Patricia Demers, Women’s Writing in English, 79. 73 Margaret P. Hannay credits Pembroke with sparking the movement to write history plays on and off the commercial stage in England (Philip’s Phoenix, 119). S.P. Cerasano and Marion Wynne-Davies similarly argue that Pembroke “should be acknowledged as one of the earliest contributors to politicized historical drama,” noting that the play “went through five editions in fifteen years” (Cerasano and Wynne-Davies, Renaissance Drama by Women, 16). 74 Brenda Hosington, “Englishwomen’s Translations.” See also Nelson’s discussion of the seriousness with which early modern English readers took translation, particularly of polemical works, in “Translating Du Perron.” 75 Demers, Women’s Writing in English, 64. 76 These editions came out in 1548, 1568, 1580, 1582, and 1590. See Anne Lake Prescott, introductory note to Elizabeth and Mary Tudor, x–xi. 77 John Aubrey records “a manuscript very elegantly written, viz. all the Psalmes of David translated by Sir Philip Sydney, curiously bound in crimson velvet” in the Wilton library (Brief Lives, 33–4). Although it has long been lost (probably in the Wilton fire of 1647), Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, planned to give to Queen Elizabeth in 1599 a presentation copy of the Psalmes that she and her brother Philip had paraphrased; Hannay suggests that the volume Aubrey saw may have been the intended gift (Hannay, Philip’s Phoenix, 85). 78 The translation, a New Year’s gift to Katherine Parr on 31 December 1544, is written “in Elizabeth’s hand, on parchment, with embellished embroidered cover that
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is also her own work” (Leah S. Marcus, Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose, Elizabeth I, 6n1). Although twenty-eight years old at the time she began her contribution to the translation of Erasmus’s Paraphrases in Novum Testamentum (1544), and thus well past her teens, Mary Tudor with this project did offer yet another example of a socially acceptable translation by an unmarried woman. Mary’s translation was done at the behest of Katherine Parr and was subsequently published under the general editorship of Nicholas Udall; the work “began to see print” in 1548 (Prescott, introductory note to Elizabeth and Mary Tudor, xii). Udall credits Mary with the translation of the part of the Paraphrases dealing with the Gospel of John, although “[n]o one knows how much of the translation is Mary’s” and how much that of her chaplain, Francis Malet (ibid.). The “Government enjoined all parishes to acquire copies,” an undertaking that required “huge press runs” (ibid.). “Marguerite de Navarre.” See also Prescott, introductory note to Elizabeth and Mary Tudor, ix–x. Princess Elizabeth identifies the work as “The Mirror or Glass of the Sinful Soul” in her dedication of the manuscript to her step-mother, but this text was not reproduced in the published editions (Elizabeth Tudor, “[Princess Elizabeth to Queen Katherine],” 7). A search of EEBO conducted in 2009 returned 105 records of books with some form of the word “mirror” in the title published by 1597, many of which are conduct literature. Chambers reprints the “Ditchley Entertainment” as an appendix to his Sir Henry Lee (276–97). William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 3.2.20. Chamberlain, Letter to Dudley Carleton, 2 Oct. 1602. Henry Cary, Elizabeth Tanfield’s husband, was the son of Edward Cary and Katherine Knyvet, the widow of Henry, 2nd Baron Paget. Sir Henry Lee was married to the first Lord Paget’s daughter, Anne, and was thus Katherine Knyvet’s brotherin-law. Anne Vavasour’s mother was Margaret Knyvet, sister to this same Katharine Knyvet (Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 151). Karen L. Raber, “Gender and the Political Subject,” 323, 322. Life, 188. Nancy Cotton Pearse, “Elizabeth Cary,” 602. It may well be, as Barry Weller and Margaret W. Ferguson suggest, that “the marriage of Cary’s parents” experienced “[t]ensions stemming from differences in social status” (introduction to Mariam, 3), but even if Elizabeth Symondes did look down on her husband, her uncle Henry appears to have had a good opinion of him. Weller and Ferguson overstate Elizabeth Symondes’s status somewhat in asserting that her mother Catherine was “daughter of Sir Anthony Lee, Knight of the Garter” (3). As Chambers makes clear, Anthony Lee married a Wyatt, was “on good terms with Cromwell,” was knighted in 1539, and became MP for Buckinghamshire (Sir Henry Lee, 21, 22; see also DNB, s.v. “Wyatt, Sir Thomas”). However, Anthony’s son Henry was the only Lee made a Knight of the Garter. “It was an
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unusual honour for one who was not a peer, and Essex had much ado to persuade the Queen to consent to it” (Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 172). Giles Symondes himself had no title of any sort and at least sometimes engaged in trade. I would also point out that Lady Tanfield’s impatience with her husband’s decision to depend “on his own industry” and “to provide for himself by following his profession” was more about money than status, for it reflected her belief that he was not pursuing his rights: although his father had left him “all he had” in his will, “his mother parted [the inheritance] amongst his sisters and herself … nor did he ever question what she had done, nor ever seek to recover anything, but contented himself with his own industry” (Life, 183). None of these details are incompatible, however, with Weller and Ferguson’s suggestion that Lady Tanfield was proud of her Lee antecedents. Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 248. The portrait of a youthful and expensively dressed Elizabeth Symondes is reproduced in Marriott, Viscount Falkland, facing page 47. Marriott records that, at the time of publication (1908), the portrait was still in the possession of Viscount Dillon at Ditchley Park (47). R.H. Melville Lee, Related to Lee, 321. Crossley and Erlington also take the view that Lee, as steward of Woodstock, “strongly influenced the borough’s representation,” noting not only that “Lawrence Tanfield, M.P. from 1584, was married to Lee’s niece,” but also that “Sir Henry Unton and Sir Francis Stonor, M.P.s in 1584 and 1586, were presumably nominees of [Sir Francis] Knollys or Lee.” Furthermore, from the time that “Sir Henry Lee became the borough’s high steward” the borough of Woodstock was “content … to elect non-resident M.P.s, probably his nominees” (Crossley et al., “Woodstock – Parliamentary Representation”). R.H. Melville Lee, Related to Lee, 322. John Nichols, Progresses, vol. 3, 129. Mary Hill Cole, Portable Queen, 222. Balfour, Edmund Harman, 14. As is well known, Elizabeth had also visited Woodstock before she made Lee its Ranger. She “was lodged as a State prisoner in the Gate House, during her sister’s reign, in 1553 and 1554. She visited Woodstock in 1566, 1572, 1574, 1575, and 1592” (Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 81). See also Nichols, Progresses, vol. 1. Elsie Corbett, Spelsbury, 142; Carlyle, “Tanfield, Sir Lawrence.” Lee’s father Anthony was the son of Robert Lee by his first wife, but Robert’s second wife was Lettice Peniston, widow of Robert Knollys, whose son Sir Francis Knollys married “Katharine Carey, daughter of Mary Boleyn and first cousin of Queen Elizabeth.” Furthermore, it was the sister of Sir Francis Knollys, “a second Lettice Knollys,” who “married firstly Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, and secondly Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester” (Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 17). John Aubrey, in typical fashion, reports that Lee was “supposed brother of queen Elizabeth” (Aubrey, Brief Lives, 370). However, as Chambers points out, this is highly unlikely because Lee was born “about March 1533,” and “in the summer of
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1532 Henry was still in love with Anne Boleyn, who had not yet yielded to him” (Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 19). Lee’s mother, Margaret Wyatt Lee, sister of Thomas Wyatt, “may have been one of the ladies appointed to attend upon Anne, when she went to the Tower in 1536,” and there is a long tradition that she was present on the scaffold (ibid., 19–20; see also R.H. Melville Lee, Related to Lee, 319). Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 251. Chambers reports that “On 20 February” of 1566 “Leicester writes to Cecil about Bucks [Buckinghamshire] affairs ‘from Sir Henry Lee’s house,’ and on 9 May 1567 Sir Nicholas Throckmorton passes to Leicester the news from Lee that the Queen is about to send the Earl a token and a message” (Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 33). Lee “was still in close association with the Earl” in 1571 (ibid., 38), and on “10 August 1572 Burghley wrote to Leicester about an intended gift by the Queen to Lee” (ibid., 39). During his travels on the continent in 1568–69, Lee reported faithfully to Burghley (ibid., 33–6); in return, Burghley intervened on Lee’s behalf with a letter “to Archbishop Parker to support the Queen’s request for favour to ‘my dear friend’” Lee in a case (probably a title dispute) that had been “referred to the Archbishop” (Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 36). Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 30. Paget was “disgraced in 1552” but “Pardoned in 1553” (30). Ibid., 50. Ibid., 58. Corbett, Spelsbury, 136. Gwynneth Bowen, “Sir Edward Vere and His Mother.” Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 27; Strong, Cult, 130. Corbett, Spelsbury, 136. See also Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 46–7. Frances A. Yates, Astraea, 94. Strong, Cult, 149; Yates, Astraea, 89. Yates, Astraea, 97. Given her studious nature and the harsh treatment meted out by her mother, this summary has seemed adequate to many. Thomas Longueville repeats it in his 1897 biography (Longueville, Falklands, 2), and a century later, in the introduction to their edition of The Tragedy of Mariam, Cerasano and Wynne-Davies say only this of Elizabeth’s youth: “She had a strict upbringing and was a somewhat isolated child who immersed herself in her studies” (Cerasano and WynneDavies, Renaissance Drama by Women, 43). Ellen Winner, Gifted Children, 3, 212. Joseph Renzulli et al., “A Time and Place for Authentic Learning,” 74. Renzulli, “General Theory,” 180. Renzulli further explains that great teachers have themselves a “passion for knowledge and learning. They view themselves as part of the discipline rather than as a person who merely studies it or teaches it to others” (180). Nor is Renzulli’s twenty-first-century pedagogical philosophy entirely alien to that of Elizabeth Tudor’s teacher Roger Ascham, whose book
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The Scholemaster explores his concern that “many yong wittes be driven to hate learning, before they know what learninge is” (Ascham, The Scholemaster, B2r). John Davies of Hereford, The Muses Sacrifice, 2r; 3v. Scholars since at least Yates have been confusing or conflating this author, who was never knighted and who always styled himself “John Davies of Hereford” on his title pages, with Sir John Davies, author of Hymnes of Astraea. Yates attributes the Hymnes of Astraea to “Sir John Davies of Hereford” (Yates, Astraea, 218), and Hannay likewise conflates them (Hannay, Phoenix, 112; 302). Tina Krontiris (Oppositional Voices, 78) and Weller and Ferguson (introduction to Mariam, 6) attribute The Muses Sacrifice to Sir John Davies. The dedication, however, is signed “John Davies of Hereford,” and the attribution of this poem has posed no difficulty to either poet’s biographers. See also endnote 209. “The earl of Northumberland’s book of household expenses” records “in 1607 a payment ‘To John Davis for teaching Lord Percy to write, for a year, 20 l.’” (DNB, s.v. “John Davies [1564/5–1618]”). If Davies was hired to teach Elizabeth how to write, then this would have been before she began her translation of Ortelius, judging by her excellent handwriting in this manuscript. However, little is known of Davies’s life before 1605 (DNB, s.v. “John Davies [1564/5–1618]”). According to P.J. Finkelpearl, Davies “attempted every kind [of verse] except the dramatic, but his main efforts were religious, moral, and psychological treatises or sermons” (Finkelpearl, “Davies, John [1564/5–1618]”). Having read Davies’s lengthy and incoherent Mirum in Modum, I can only concur with Finkelpearl that the reason “only one of his works [Microcosmos] ever reached a second edition … would seem to be distressingly clear” (ibid.). Newdigate, Michael Drayton, 78. Brink, Drayton Revisited, 2. Ibid., 9; 10. Ibid., 7. Ibid. Ibid., 2. Ibid., 140. Brink also lists nine other plays that Drayton either wrote or helped to write between 1599 and 1605 (ibid., 140–1). Ibid., 12. Newdigate points out that “the plots of most of them were drawn from such chronicles or ballads as were the favourite subject of his study” and suggests that “Connan, Prince of Cornwall [first performed 1598], should perhaps be Corineus or Corin, Prince of Cornwall, whose legendary history, taken out of Geoffrey of Monmouth or Holinshed, is told at length in the First Song of Poly-Olbion” (Newdigate, Michael Drayton, 105). Virginia Brackett, “Elizabeth Cary, Drayton, and Edward II.” Marta Straznicky, “Profane Stoical Paradoxes,” 109; 107; 108. Additionally, I note that Drayton was friends with William Alexander (Newdigate, Michael Drayton, 95–6), whose Monarchicke Tragedies are traditionally grouped with the Sidnean closet dramas. For a review of Mariam’s affinities with the drama of the
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Sidnean circle, see Straznicky; see also Barbara Lewalski, “Resisting Tyrants,” and Gutierrez, “Valuing Mariam.” For the generally accepted “canon” of English neo-Senecan drama, twelve plays closely or loosely linked to the Sidneys which include, of course, Mary Sidney’s Antonius, see Gutierrez, “Valuing Mariam,” 236. This list was first compiled by Alexander Witherspoon in 1924 (Influence of Robert Garnier on Elizabethan Drama). For the nature of the relationships of Daniel to the Sidneys, see Hannay, Philip’s Phoenix, 120–9. Lodge, a Catholic, was not a member of the Sidney circle; however, as translator of Seneca, he shared some of their interests (DNB , s.v. “Thomas Lodge”). Davies served for some time as secretary to Pembroke’s husband, the second Earl of Pembroke. (See Hannay, Philip’s Phoenix, 112.) William H. Sherman, “The Place of Reading,” 69. My analysis here is meant to complement rather than to contradict Raber’s important discussion of the ways in which Elizabeth’s “inaudible transmission, channeled privately between father and daughter, girl and judge … is successful precisely because it creates a private space within the public world of the court” (Raber, “Gender and the Political Subject,” 321–2). Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 34; Paul Binding, Imagined Corners, 269–71, 279. David Buisseret offers a useful summary of the several explanations historians have offered for this change in mindset: the “fashionable admiration for antiquity, exemplified in cartography by the work of Ptolemy,” whose work circulated widely in the sixteenth century and “no doubt accustomed many Europeans to a new view of the world, and to the idea that it might be described under a system of mathematical coordinates”; the Scientific Revolution’s “emphasis on quantification and measurement,” which accustomed people to the idea of “pinning down locations in terms of figures of latitude and longitude; and “the artistic developments of the fifteenth century” in which the science of perspective increasingly was relied on for producing realistic “topographical views” (David Buisseret, introduction to Monarchs, Ministers, and Maps, 1). Barber, “England II,” 78. Barber, “England I,” 39. Barber, “England II,” 68. Ifor M. Evans and Heather Lawrence, Christopher Saxton, xi. Sarah Tyacke and John Huddy, Christopher Saxton, 41. Strong, Gloriana, 135; Corbett, Spelsbury, 137. The Ditchley Portrait has never been dated precisely, but Strong argues that it was probably presented to the queen upon her visit to Lee in 1592 (Strong, Gloriana, 136–8). Klein, Maps and the Writing of Space, 137. Ibid., 138. Cormack, Charting an Empire, 38. Richard Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood, 131, 132. See Barber, “England II,” 57–8.
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Strong, Gloriana, 99. Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood, 112. Strong, Gloriana, 98; 99 Barber, “England II,” 78. The claims of the 1580–83 Sieve Portrait are also suggested by a pillar with a crown at its base. This is not, as Strong points out, “a royal crown,” such as that worn by Elizabeth in the Saxton frontispiece portrait, “but that [imperial crown] worn by the Holy Roman Emperors” (Strong, Gloriana, 103). Elizabeth Tudor, “[Queen Elizabeth’s First Speech],” 52. Strong, Gloriana, 99. See Strong, Gloriana, 136. Cerasano and Wynne-Davies echo Strong in asserting that Elizabeth and her kingdom are “interchangeable” in this portrait (Cerasano and Wynne-Davies, “From Myself,” 11). Louis Montrose, The Subject of Elizabeth, 131. Barber, for instance, says, “The queen is … shown standing on Saxton’s map of England and Wales” (Barber, “England II,” 78). Ibid., 78. Ibid., 71–2. The wool trade “at the time [of the Tudors] was Burford’s most important trade” (Moody and Moody, Burford, 13–14). For the importance of sheep to the fortunes of the Lee family, see Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, chapter 1. Ortelius, Epitome of Ortelius, London [i.e., Antwerp]: Hendrik Swing for John Norton, 1602?, 5v. The translator of the texts into English has not been identified. As van der Krogt points out, in the Shawe Epitome, “The text of the dedication to Sir Walter Raleigh provides evidence that it was printed before the death of Queen Elizabeth on 24 March 1603” (KAN, 333:31). There is no date on the Norton title page, but “It is dedicated to Richard Gargrave, who was knighted by King James in 1603. Consequently, this edition must be dated in or before 1603” (van der Krogt, KAN, 332:31). Although the British Library catalogue gives 1602 as the date of publication for the Norton Epitome, cartobibliographers agree that “[w]hich of the two competitive editions came first is difficult to say” (van der Krogt, KAN, 333:31). On the importance of issues of primacy in seventeenth-century English debates between Catholics and Protestants, see Karen L. Nelson, “Translating du Perron,” 155–6. She does condense one potentially controversial passage about Italy in her translation of “Europa” (3v), but the map description for Italy is itself unabridged. See textual note 12. Cary continued as an adult to use elements of design to convey or underscore her attitude when writing. For instance, as Wolfe notes, in a letter to Charles I “she signs her name in the bottom right corner of the page, leaving a significant amount of white space to indicate her humility and submission before the king” (Wolfe, “Textual Introduction to Letters,” 227).
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164 Only those for “SICILIA” [37v] and “TURKIE” [47v] are comparable. Elizabeth was to explore her interest in Sicily again in writing her first original verse tragedy, now lost, which was set in Syracuse. This work is mentioned both by John Davies of Hereford in his dedication to The Muses Sacrifice (3v) and by Cary in the sonnet dedicating Mariam to one of her sisters-in-law (Mariam, 66). 165 Charles Howard McIlwain, The Political Works of James I, 272. 166 Nelson, “Translating du Perron,” 148. 167 Katherine Pilhuj offers a similar reading of this passage, arguing that because “Herod claims that Mariam exceeds the female representative of the empire,” Herod’s “rhetoric attempts to place his position as husband to that ‘miracle … rare’ as above that of Rome’s leaders,” but “Cary provides continual reminders that Herod’s rule depends at least partly on the goodwill of Rome” (Pilhuj, “A Mirror for the World,” 92–3). 168 This distinction between spiritual and secular authority was, of course, a crucial distinction to any English Catholic who was also a faithful English subject. 169 Relevant here as well is Gwynne Kennedy’s argument that, in Edward II, Cary treats Queen Isabel sympathetically until the queen’s “power increases” (“Reform or Rebellion?” 211). Kennedy points out that “Isabel ceases to be a virtuous, sympathetic figure when her efforts to reform Edward bring about a reversal of gender, marital, and political hierarchies … Marital discontent culminates in the king’s deposition, and this realization may be unsettling to a woman who, like Isabel or Cary, wants to ‘re-form’ her situation while remaining obedient” (ibid., 212). 170 Henry Lee, “[The Prince of Light],” lines 5–8; 13–14. The following restorations are suggested by Karen Hearn (Marcus Gheeraerts, 60) and Strong (Gloriana, 137), and seem fairly obvious: “dev[ine]” (5), “oc[ean]” (13), and “po[wer]” (14). I suggest that, if we accept “dev[ine],” then it is reasonable to reconstruct the final word in line 7 as “r[efine],” given the sonnet’s rhyme scheme. I suggest “wr[ath]” in line 8, based on the word’s frequent Old Testament association with fire and lightning and the poem’s concern with judgment versus mercy. The word following “wr[ath]” and the final word(s) of line 6 must remain a matter of speculation, though we may assume that they rhyme. The slant rhyme of “c[an send]” with “wr[ath the Hand]” is one possibility, but there are many others. As for the final couplet, Hearn ends line 13 on “oc[ean]” and line 14 on “po[wer].” Strong also ends line 14 on “po[wer].” Given the metrical requirements of the form, the sense of the words, the conventions of the English sonnet, and the parallelisms on which this particular sonnet is structured, it seems appropriate to me to conceive of lines 13–14 as a rhyming couplet; I have reconstructed them accordingly. As Strong argues, “For decades” Lee “had devised pageantry in honour of the Queen, so that there can be no doubt that he was the author of the iconography of this portrait, including its sonnet” (Strong, Gloriana, 136). 171 Ibid., 136.
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172 England’s Heroicall Epistles (1597); The Historie of the Life and Death of the Lord Cromwell, Sometimes Earle of Essex, and Lord Chancellor of England (1609); PolyOlbion [Albion] (1612); The Second Part, or a Continuance of Poly-Olbion (1622). 173 Francis Meres, Palladis Tamia, 281r. 174 Brink, Drayton Revisited, 140. 175 From her examination of the two recently discovered manuscript versions of Cary’s history of Edward II, Reeves has determined that Cary wrote at least two versions: the Fitzwilliam manuscript, evidently the original of the folio version; the Finch-Hatton manuscript; and a likely third manuscript, now lost, “a kind of missing link from which the contents of both the octavo and the Finch-Hatton manuscript are derived” (Reeves, “From Manuscript to Printed Text,” 139). 176 For the dates of composition of Cary’s various versions of Edward II, see Reeves, “From Manuscript to Printed Text,” 135. 177 Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood, 112. 178 Ibid., 114. 179 Ibid., 114, 135. 180 Ibid., 114. 181 Ibid., 117. 182 Raphael Falco, “Women, Genealogy, and Composite Monarchy in Michael Drayton’s Poly-Olbion,” 242, 252. 183 Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood, 112. 184 Henry Lee, “[The Prince of Light],” line 5; see endnote 172 for the reconstruction of the line. 185 Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood, 124. 186 Ewell, “Drayton’s Poly-Olbion,” 303. 187 Ewell, “Drayton’s Poly-Olbion,” 302. 188 Claire McEachern, Poetics of English Nationhood, 187, 181. 189 Ibid., 167, 139. 190 Ibid., 155. 191 Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood, 124, 122. 192 Ibid., 140. 193 As Helgerson observes, the frontispiece seats Britannia “in a position strongly reminiscent of that assumed by Queen Elizabeth on Saxton’s frontispiece, an image that was itself already an adaptation of the familiar icon of the Virgin Mary as queen of heaven. As the cult of Elizabeth had replaced the cult of the Virgin, so the cult of Britain now assumes power in its turn” (Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood, 120). 194 Ibid., 122. 195 For a discussion of why we may take Drayton, rather than Selden, as the author of this verse, see Falco, “Women, Genealogy,and Composite Monarchy,” 246–8. 196 Falco offers a different reading of “Upon the Frontispice” in a welcome and thought-provoking examination of the critically “neglect[ed] female figures in
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197
198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207
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Michael Drayton’s Poly-Olbion” (Falco, “Women, Genealogy, and Composite Monarchy,” 238). However, I am unconvinced by his crediting Albion here with “discriminating judgment in love” (ibid., 249). With one exception only, the male figures in the poem have all the active verbs; there is little evidence of Albion’s exercising judgment or even choice. Drayton, Poly-Olbion, A 1. Falco tentatively invites us to consider a different reading of “To the Generall Reader,” suggesting that Drayton’s “remark on the female sex could be seen as simply a more decorous challenge, not so much a dismissal as an inducement to women to test their readerly mettle” (Falco, “Women, Genealogy, and Composite Monarchy,” 241–2). Ibid., A 1. Obvious examples include Walter Rale[i]gh’s Discoverie of … Guiana and John Donne’s “Elegy XIX : To His Mistress Going to Bed.” Rhonda Lemke Sanford, Maps and Memory, 54. See also, for instance, Patricia Parker, Literary Fat Ladies, and Jonathan Sawday, Body Emblazoned. Pilhuj, “A Mirror for the World,” 81. Helgerson, Forms of Nationhood, 141. McEachern, Poetics of English Nationhood, 167. Falco, “Women, Genealogy, and Composite Monarchy,” 239. Strong, Cult, 161. Hackett, Virgin Mother, Maiden Queen, 187; 188. This is the hubristic failure that Sir John Davies condemns in his 1599 acrostic, “Hymne XII . To her Picture”: E xtreame was his Audacitie; L ittle his Skill that finisht thee, I am asham’d and Sorry, S o dull her counterfait should be, A nd she so full of glory. B ut here are colours red and white, E ach lyne, and each proportion right; T hese Lynes, this red, and whitenesse, H auve wanting yet a life and light, A Majestie, and brightnesse. No single “counterfait” can convey the queen’s “glory,” no matter how right “E ach lyne, and each proportion.” Yet the silence of a blank canvas is only one alternative to Davies’s “dull … counterfait”; the other is a profusion of representations, all originary supplements to one another. This is the approach Davies himself takes with his twenty-six Acrosticke Hymnes, of which “Hymne XII” is only one; this is also Lee’s approach in his design for the Ditchley Portrait, which includes multiple verses as well as multiple images, all describing the queen. Also relevant is Strong’s discussion of the Armada portrait’s construction of multiple points of view: “The Queen stands, brilliantly lit from the front, in a space to which the norms of Renaissance painting do not apply. The chair to the right is seen simul-
208 209 210
211
212 213 214 215
216 217 218
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taneously from two different viewpoints. The two tables to the left are also separately observed, while, through the openings of a columned arcade behind her, we witness simultaneously the sending of the fire ships into the advancing Spanish fleet and the latter’s shipwreck on the rocky coasts of Scotland” (Strong, Gloriana, 131–2). Marcel van den Broecke, “Structure and Characteristics.” Her description of “a marvelous herbe called Sardonica, wch maketh men dy with laughinge,” does not follow this trend (Mirror, 38r). The impossibility of identifying a unifying national character is a central concern also of Edward II. Cary’s treatment of the German character raises readerly expectation by imitating the discourse of L’Epitome, only to subvert it. First come the generalization: “Now are the German natures sifted, and their motions, who fight but ill for words, and worse for nothing. Their constitutions dull and slow, were fitter to guard a Fort, than to invade a Kingdom” (186). Yet in the pages that follow, one particular German, Sir John of Hainault, is heroically swift to take up the fight on Queen Isabel’s behalf; it is he and his German soldiers who do “invade a Kingdom” in support of Isabel. (Cary is also consistent with L’Epitome here in calling the Flemings “Germans.”) The same may be said of Edward II, in which Cary’s central concern is to anatomize the ways in which “Civil Discord” (70) can lead to a nation’s “ruine and destruction” (44). King, queen, barons, and burghers all at various times present claims to power that Cary treats as neither entirely legitimate nor entirely illegitimate. She even gives Clifford a speech in which he stresses that Spencer is a far worse threat than Gaveston, because “We now must have to do with one of our own Country, which knows our ways, and how to intercept them” (54). Helgerson, Sonnet from Carthage. See, for instance, pages 19–20. Nicholas Howe, “Rome as Capital of Anglo-Saxon England,” Writing the Map of Anglo-Saxon England, 101–24. Godfrey, “Burford Priory,” 76. Ibid., 72. Godfrey reports that “Colonel Sales La Terriere, who moved them, says: ‘I found it impossible to show the arches and columns in situ as I found them (half of them were buried in and used in the construction of a chimney-stack), so I got them out carefully … and re-erected them in the present hall, some 10 feet away from and parallel to their original position’” (ibid., 76). Although the building has been rebuilt so many times since Tanfield’s day that the original hospital’s precise outlines cannot be identified with complete certainty, historians agree that the wall from which La Terriere removed the arches was part of the fabric of Tanfield’s building (see figure 11). See Godfrey for a detailed discussion of the Priory’s many incarnations, especially his “Plan of the buildings of Burford Priory, showing the dates of construction of the earlier portions” (ibid., 74). Prior and Community, Burford Priory, 1. Ibid., 1; Godfrey, “Burford Priory,” 75. Ruth Perry, Mary Astell, 134.
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219 Prior and Community, Burford Priory, 1. Godfrey suggests that the hospital was founded by William, Earl of Gloucester, in which case it “was probably erected in his lifetime, that is before 1183” (Godfrey, “Burford Priory,” 72). 220 Chamberlain, Letter to Dudley Carleton, 27 June 1602. 221 Klein, Maps and the Writing of Space, 103. 222 Jean Norgate and Martin Norgate, “Saxton’s Hampshire 1575, Symbols, Settlements, etc.” 223 Camden, trans. Holland, Britannia, 5r. 224 Newdigate, Michael Drayton, 94. 225 Camden, trans. Holland, Britannia, 163. 226 For a review of the scholarship on this subject, see Raber, introduction to Ashgate Critical Essays. 227 For a review of the scholarship on Mariam on this topic, see Raber, introduction to Ashgate Critical Essays, xiii, xx–xxiii. 228 Kennedy, “Reform or Rebellion?” 210, 211. 229 Krontiris, Oppositional Voices, 146. 230 Quoted in Wolfe, introduction to Literary Career and Legacy, 13n12. 231 Binding, Imagined Corners, 6.
Note on the Text
The Mirror of the Worlde exists in a single manuscript copy; that is the copy text for this edition. It is the property of the Vicar and Wardens of St John the Baptist Church, Burford, Oxfordshire, to whom it was given in 1925 by H.A. Lee-Dillon, 17th Viscount Dillon. The vicar of Burford placed it on deposit with the Bodleian Library, Oxford, in 1991.1 The manuscript consists of iv + 88 leaves; i–iv and 54–88 are blank. Some of the manuscript’s leaves are badly damaged by moisture, and a few have holes or tears in them; consequently, the manuscript is too fragile to be handled regularly, and the Bodleian has made a copy of its pages available to researchers as Dep. d. 817*. I am deeply grateful to St John the Baptist Church and the Bodleian Library for granting me the invaluable opportunity to study the original manuscript for one full week in September 2011, and grateful to Bodleian staff for assisting me with this breathtakingly fragile artifact. Much care and planning, as well as some expense, appear to have gone into producing Elizabeth’s Mirror. The manuscript is bound in ivorycoloured parchment, and this cover is adorned with gilt stamps; the edges of the pages are also gilded; such binding gives Elizabeth’s custom-made book “a style of modest luxury characteristic of 16th- to 17th-century English (and continental) books.”2 It is approximately 7 inches wide, 10 inches tall, and ½ inch thick. The number of blank leaves suggests that the manuscript was bound before Elizabeth began writing in it. Of the fifty-three on which she has written, there is text on both the recto and verso of each, except for folio 1v, which is blank. Elizabeth did not number her pages; the folio numbers used throughout this edition are the ones pencilled onto the manuscript by Bodleian staff, and all references to the manuscript in this edition use these folio numbers.
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Elizabeth starts a new page for each of the first fourteen map descriptions (there are ninety-three in total). Beginning with folio 10r she becomes more frugal with her paper, generally starting a new map description part way down the page if one description ends near the top. However, as she approaches the end of her project she reverts to her original practice: starting with “HUNGARIA” (41v–42r), she consistently begins each map description on a fresh page, no matter how much room is left on the bottom of the page preceding. It is at least possible that she began to think herself in danger of running out of paper part way through the project, and then realized towards the end that she would have more than enough.3 The number of leaves left blank at the end (thirty-five, compared to fifty-three with writing on them) makes this unlikely. Nevertheless, it would have been difficult to calculate in advance how much paper she would need for the entire work because although each place description in L’Epitome fits on to a single page, not all are printed in the same type size, and in fact they vary in length considerably. It is also possible that the book was originally bound for some other purpose; there are no identifying names or other words on the parchment cover itself. As L’Epitome does, Elizabeth gives each place description a title. Some are quite plain while others are highly embellished, and a few are also graced with small, abstract graphic symbols (see figures 6 and 7). Although these symbols cannot be reproduced in every case, this edition records each occurrence, since the presence, absence, and size of such decorative additions may constitute valuable clues to Elizabeth’s attitude towards the material she is translating. Nowhere, however, does she include anything that even tries to look like a map. The Mirror is text only – or, more precisely, it is text with a few added flourishes that are non-verbal but also non-representational. Despite damage to the manuscript (see, for instance, figure 6), it is for the most part clearly legible, thanks to the careful neatness of Elizabeth’s italic hand. The style of the various map description titles often appears influenced by her attitude towards content, as I discuss in the introduction; in the map descriptions themselves, however, her hand is less variable. She experiments with a few different styles in the first half of the manuscript before settling into a more consistent style in the second half: as a comparison of figures 5 to 9 demonstrates, her initial style closely resembles the models provided in some books of handwriting instruction of the period, such as that shown in figure 12. This pattern of development suggests that, as Elizabeth’s work progressed, either her hand matured into a more individual style, or she began choosing to trade a little beauty
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for a little more speed, or a combination of the two.4 However, much work remains to be done on this subject. Further evidence that Elizabeth took extra time and pains in writing the early pages of her transcription may be found in the fact that, for folios 2r through 6v only, she double-rules the left-hand margin and begins the text of each entry with a decoratively large majuscule letter which extends beyond the inside margin as far as the outside margin (see figure 6). She abandons this practice starting with folio 7r, however; from this point on each page is lightly ruled once on the left, at the top, on the right, and sometimes but not always on the bottom (see figure 9). She simplifies her presentation after 6v in another way as well: six consecutive map descriptions (on folios 4r to folio 6v) have small graphic symbols after each title; after folio 6v such embellishments after the title occur only twice more, although she continues from time to time to add a small graphic symbol at the end of a map description. She also sometimes compresses her hand significantly in order to save space. As a consequence of these stylistic shifts it is more difficult in some portions of the manuscript than in others to distinguish, for instance, between majuscules and minuscules; some of these passages are identified in the textual notes. Since it is quite often difficult to distinguish between majuscule and minuscule C’s, V’s, and L’s, the reader should assume there is some uncertainty regarding the capitalization of any word beginning with one of these letters. In the very few cases where part of a word is missing or obscured (because of a hole, tear, or blot), I have reconstructed it by consulting the original French and the immediate English context, and by considering Elizabeth’s diction, syntax, and spelling elsewhere in the manuscript. All such passages are marked in square brackets and identified in the textual notes. Somewhat more common are single letters that are visible but difficult to read with certainty; these too are marked with square brackets, and many are also annotated. We may sometimes find it difficult to believe that Elizabeth really intended to write the particular letter, number, or word that we see before us, as, for instance, when she appears to be telling us of an “amphitheater made in the fashion of a cowe” (10v). Nevertheless, I have resisted the temptation to engage in textual emendation, instead dealing with such puzzlements in the textual notes. Square brackets indicating an uncertain reading are most common in the case of punctuation, and there are several reasons for this. Elizabeth’s commas and periods are often quite distinct, but not always. Furthermore, given the fact that the copy text is on old and sometimes damaged paper, and that the ink has acquired a brownish tint, it is sometimes difficult to dis-
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tinguish between a period, an ink fleck, and a random speck embedded in the paper. (Ink from one side of the folio is also sometimes visible on the other.) Unfortunately, neither the context of the translation nor the French original may be relied upon to help us distinguish, for Elizabeth can be careless about syntax and punctuation, a carelessness no doubt exacerbated by her apparent practice of translating as she goes. She often, for instance, will start a new sentence without using a period to conclude the previous one. Elizabeth herself uses the square bracket only in one passage (14v), and this is indicated in the textual note; all others are editorial. On occasion, Elizabeth sets individual words apart from the surrounding text, either by writing them with a different nib (usually producing a thicker line) or by writing them in a different style of lettering, or both. I have set all such words in italics. Elizabeth also follows L’Epitome’s example in that she often writes important names all in majuscules, but L’Epitome itself is far from consistent in this practice, and Elizabeth is equally inconsistent in hers. I have transcribed her own majuscules and minuscules exactly as written, insofar as is possible to be certain, but I have made no attempt to indicate whether or not she uses majuscules exactly as L’Epitome does for any given word. Nor, although I reproduce Elizabeth’s own paragraphing, have I attempted to indicate her departures from L’Epitome’s example in this aspect of her translation. In truth, Elizabeth appears hardly to notice paragraphing; her usual practice is to write an entire map description as one textual block, no matter how many paragraphs it may be broken into in her source. This edition retains the original spelling of the manuscript except for “long s,” “VV” used for “W,” and “vv” used for “w.” The letterforms “i,” “j,” “u,” and “v” have also been regularized. The same principle has been followed for all quotations from L’Epitome; the reader will find that it is inconsistent in its use of accents, which I also reproduce exactly as printed. Except for the final lines of “Barbaria” (53v), words divided across lines have been silently joined wherever Elizabeth has indicated that she intends them to be read as single words (see figure 13). Where she has used the tilde or other brevigraphs for “n,” “m,” “i” in “-cion” and “-tion,” and “re-” in “pre-,” these abbreviations have been silently expanded. All other abbreviations have been retained, as have all superscripts, and no spelling errors, however obvious, have been corrected. I note, for instance, that Elizabeth’s use of the ampersand increases towards the end of the manuscript, and consider that abbreviations and spelling errors alike may have much to tell us about Elizabeth’s writing process, the conditions under
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which she carried out this project, her attitude towards the material she is translating at various stages of the project, and her development as a writer. For the same reason, all deletions and interpolations are retained in the text: deletions are printed within angle brackets: < >. Interpolations are printed within slashes: / /. Elizabeth herself uses a slash once (29r), and this is indicated in textual note 275. All other slashes are editorial. Unless otherwise stated in the textual note, all interpolations in the copy text are above the line. It is often possible to see where Elizabeth has corrected her own spelling by writing one letter over top of another. Such instances of authorial amendment are not treated as deletions but are instead dealt with in the textual notes.
notes
1 “Literary Manuscripts, 16th–21st cent.,” Bodleian Catalogue of Manuscripts. 2 Bruce Barker-Benfield, e-mail to the editor, 7 July 2003. 3 It is possible that she originally planned to include more than just the map descriptions; as I suggest in the Introduction, L’Epitome contains end matter that may well have been of interest and value to Elizabeth. But there is no good evidence that she intended to include anything beyond the map descriptions themselves. 4 I am grateful to Anna Beth Kirk Rose for reviewing and discussing these matters with me.
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The Mirror of the Worlde
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[1r] The mirror of the Worlde1 translated Out of French into Englishe by E T [2r] To the righte honorable my Singular good Uncle Sr Henry Lee knighte of the moste noble order of the garter.2 Receive here honorable Sir my humble presente, the fruites and endevours of my younge and tender yeares, an acknowledgemente of my bounden duty to you[.] for thoughe I can no way sufficiently expresse my gratefullnes for many your great favours nor presente to you any thinge worthy of your selfe yet give mee leave I humbly beseeche you to presente to you this little treatise, the viewe of the whole worlde[,] as a thinge beste awnswerable to your moste noble disposition, leavinge to your considerate judgemente & wise regarde the controule of what is herein amisse to be reformed by the experience of your many yeares travailes abroade in the worlde. And as riper yeares shall afforde mee better fruites with greater judgement I shall be ever ready to present you with the best of my travailes. Your ever obediente Neece E Tanfelde3
1 The actual title of the text ET translated is L’Epitome du Théatre du Monde d’Abraham Ortelius (1588/1590), hereafter L’Epitome. See Introduction. 2 Sr Henry Lee knighte of the … garter: Courtier, diplomat, and Queen’s Champion, Lee was admitted to the Order of the Garter in 1597 (Chambers, Sir Henry Lee, 172). See Introduction. 3 E Tanfelde: Elizabeth Tanfield was married to Henry Cary, later Viscount Falkland, in 1602. See Introduction.
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[3r] The universall worlde This table4 sheweth the figure of the earthe and the sea with every crooke and angle5 and it is devided (accordinge to the moderne writers) into five quarters, namely into Europa, Africa, Asia, America-, and Magellane. Europa6 is wholy invironed with sea, exept that parte which is annexed to Asia, from which it is devided by the river Tanais, and from her fowntaine by drye land to the northe sea near the haven of Sainte Nicholas to which the Englishmen use to saile with theire marchandise in these dayes. Asia likwise is watered with the sea, besides that parte aforesaide, joined to Europa, and that which is annexed to Africa7 betwene the red and sowthe sea[,]8 Africa would be an ile, were it not co[u]pled with a certaine point to Asia betweene the contryes of Judea and Egipt. as for America, it is not certainly knowne whether it be compassed with the sea, or joined to Asia on the north side. The which by gods helpe we hope to know, shortly by the dilligent search of the curiouse Englishmen. As concerning Magellane (scituated under the sowthe pole, called by the Spaniarde Terra del Fuego9 we can tell no greate thing because it is not as yet wholey discovered
4 This table: L’Epitome has “Ceste Carte” (viii verso). The term “geographical table” (now obsolete) denotes a map or chart (OED). ET also translates “carte” as “table” in “Languedoc et Provence” (14v); however, commencing with “Calais & Boulogne” (16v), she begins to show a preference for translating “carte” as “mapp” or “mappe.” 5 sheweth the figure of the earthe and the sea with every crooke and angle: L’Epitome has “represente toute la Terre avec la Mer, ainsi qu’elle l’environne & traverse” (viii verso). See Introduction. 6 Europa: ET begins a new line with this word, and it is slightly indented. There is no paragraph break at this point in L’Epitome, however, and it is much more typical of her style in this ms to run paragraphs together than to introduce new divisions into the text. See Note on the Text. 7 joined to Europa, … annexed to Africa: Cf. “annexée à l’Europe, … joincte à l’Afrique” (L’Epitome, viii verso). ET may have reversed the verbs for reasons of style. See Introduction. 8 sowthe sea[,] … : L’Epitome has “Mediterranée” followed by a period (viii verso). See Introduction. 9 Terra del Fuego: Although present in L’Epitome, there is no closing parenthesis in ET ’s ms
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[3v] Europa. The ayre of Europa is very temperate, the lande well manured10 and aboundant with all delectable thinges, besides those which be necessary for the life of man. Amongest the which it triumpheth of the pleasant and frutefull vine. It is very popolous for it hath no place uninhabited, It11 is beautified with many faiere and magnificent townes. Of the which admirable Rome is the principall.12 The inhabitants of this contry13 excell in pregnancy of understanding,14 and activity of body, by which meanes they allready have allmost subdued the whole worlde, at the least so much as hathe bene discovered and knowen, as it hath well appeared First in the realme of Macedone by Alexander the greate. But especialy since that time, by the Romaine Empire, and at this time by the Catholick king of Spaine and the king of Portingale: whiche at this daye yet have greate soverainty in all the other fowre quarters of the world. In such sort as it seemeth, the foresaide inhabitantes are borne fitt and apt to govern the universall worlde.15 The Illes appertaining thereunto be: Englande Scotland, Yrelande, Friseland,16 Yslande, and Gothlande 10 well manured: L’Epitome has “bien cultivée” (1v). “Well manured” in ET ’s day could mean either “well fertilized” or “well cultivated” (OED). See Introduction. 11 it hath no place uninhabited, It: Cf. “n’ayant aucune region où les hommes ne s’ayent fait habitation, avec … ” (L’Epitome, 1v). ET ’s translation is skilfully compressed but loses accuracy in rendering “region” as “place.” She preserves the comma found in the original but appears to have decided, after writing the comma, to start a new sentence. 12 Of the which admirable Rome is the principall: Cf. “Desquelles l’admirable Rome (qui tousiours a esté par tout fort bien cognue) est encores pour le present (comme aussi de tout temps elle a esté) la principale” (L’Epitome, 1v). See Introduction. 13 this contry: i.e., Europe. L’Epitome has “Les habitants de ceste partie,” which begins a new paragraph (1v). 14 pregnancy of understanding: L’Epitome has “subtilité d’entendement” (1v). See Introduction. 15 the universall worlde: Note that this phrase is also the title of the first map description, both in the original French and in ET ’s translation. L’Epitome has “le monde universel” (1v). 16 Friseland: L’Epitome has “Frislande” (1v). This is a mythical island, supposedly located south of Iceland, which “may be seen on any world map, polar map, or North Atlantic map of the period from 1558 to the 1660s” (Ramsay, No Longer on the Map, 70–1). ET translates both “Friselande,” the name of this mythical
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all compassed with the North sea. The Isles scituated in the south sea17 be; Scicilia, Candia, Corsica, Sardinia, Majorca, Minorca, Negroponte, Malta, or Melita, Corfu, Stalimena, Metelin, Sio, and many other litle Isles18 in Archipelago, and other rivers.19 [followed by a forward slash] [4r] Asia [followed by small graphic symbol] This parte of the worlde hath heretofore bene celebrated for the most Renowned next unto Europa, because of the Monarchyes of the Persians, Medeans, Assirians, and Babilonians, &c. But above all, the holie Scripture maketh greate mention thereof. for god created the first man there, who also there was deceved and made bond by Satan, and afterward enfranchised and set free20 by Christe. To conclude, all that whereof the olde teastament treateth, is allmost fallen out in this parte of the worlde. The ancients have devided it into many severall partes: but at this time it seemeth that one may well[,]21 not without greate reason, parte it into 5 Empires or Monarchies: whereof the first, borderinge upon Europe, apertaineth to the Duke of Muscovia: The second is subjecte to the great Cham. The thirde serveth under the tirrany of the Greate TURKE: The fowrth is the kingdome of Persia or of the Sophy: The fifte containeth all the reste, The which allwaies hath bene called by the name of India, and is governed, not onely of one, but of many Princes. We must not passe here in silence, that all portes, havens and
17 18
19 20
21
island, and “Frise” (or “Phrise”), which in L’Epitome refers to the North Sea coastal region inhabited by Frisians, as “Friseland(e).” See notes 161, 167, 227, and 443; see also Introduction. south sea: L’Epitome has “Mediterranée” (1v). See Introduction. Isles: ET appears originally to have spelled this word “Illes” and then amended the first “l” to a long “s.” Thus ET writes “illes” on the word’s first appearance in this description and “isles” on its second, and chooses between the two on this, its third, suggesting some attention to orthography. Cf. “Englande,” where ET also spells the plural noun “isles” but uses “ile” for its singular form (5v). litle Isles in Archipelago, and other rivers: A bit more obscure than in L’Epitome, which has “petites Isles en l’Archipelago, & en autres rivieres” (1v). enfranchised and set free: L’Epitome has “racheté & affranchi,” i.e., “bought back (or ransomed) and enfranchised” (2v). ET ’s phrase is euphonious, albeit somewhat redundant compared to the original. well[,]: reading uncertain. A small hole in the paper goes right through what might be a comma.
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fortresses beinge upon the Red sea, to Cabo de Lampo, be in possesion of the Kinge of Portingale, or at the least pay him tribute. Amongest the iles of this Asia (which be many, greate and rich) these be the principall: Zeiland,22 from whence wee have oure best cinamon, and Gillolo with the Molluccos, where the preciouse clowe gilliflowers growe[.] [4v] Africa [followed by small graphic symbol] Africa by ancient writers hath bene devid[ed] into many quarters, but in oure time it /is/ commonly devided into 6 parts: which be, Barbaria, Egiptia, Biledulgerid, Sarra, the country of the Negres or Moores, and the Contry of Presbiter John.23 Barbaria stretcheth it selfe from the sea where the Canaria Ilands be on the west side, alonge the southe sea,24 and the mount Atlas, to the East neere Egiptia. It hath in it the Realmes of Marrocco, Fesse, Allgier, and tunis &c. Egiptia is scituated betweene this country of Barbaria, the red sea, the sowthe sea,25 and the country of Presbiter John. Biledullgerid is that parte which was wont to be called Nummidia, in the which most parte of the date trees growe. Sarra (which signifieth in theire language, desert) is a place very barren and sandy, so that very hardly in many daies journes one can finde one only house, likewise there is no water but that which the passengers bring with them. It containeth Guinea and other kingdomes. The country of Presbiter John extendeth it selfe from Egipt to the lakes from whence the head of Nilus is derived betweene South and North, of the east side to the red sea, of the West side to the Realme of Nubia, and the river Niger.26 The inhabitants of this country be Christians. 22 Zeiland: L’Epitome has “Zeyland,” i.e., Ceylon (2v). See Introduction. 23 Presbiter John: the mythical Christian ruler of a fantastical kingdom, also known as Prester John. Tales of Prester John were very popular in the Middle Ages. First located in India and then in central Asia, by ET ’s time this kingdom was placed in Africa, equated either with Ethiopia or Abyssinia (Stockman, “Prester John”). 24 alonge the southe sea: L’Epitome has “le long de la Mer Mediterranée” (3v). See Introduction. 25 the sowthe sea: L’Epitome has “la Mer Mediterranée” (3v). See Introduction. 26 extendeth it selfe … and the river Niger: ET ’s translation of this sentence is more confusing than the original. L’Epitome has “s’estend depuis Egypte jusques aux lacs dont le Nil prend sa source, entre le Midy & Septentrion; du costé d’Orient jusques à la Mer rouge, & du costé de l’Occident jusques au Royaume de Nubie, & la riviere Niger” (3v). See Introduction.
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Besides these 6 parts before mencioned, there is an other (unknowne to the ancients) discovered by the navigation of the Portingales the yeare 1497 which is called by the Persians and Arabians Zanzibar, and recheth from these lakes southward to Cabo de buona speranza in the southe sea.27 This quarter hath in it many goode countries and Realmes and not farr from thence is an yle of Sainte Laurence (called Magdagascar) containing rounde aboute 200 leagues,28 which aboundeth in Ivorye for there be many Elephants. [followed by a forward slash] [5r]29 The new worlde [followed by small graphic symbol] The figure of this country America is like to Iles coupled by the middle with a little straighte of dry lande. The Northan parte containeth therein New Spaine, Florida, New land,30 and many other: The other parte towards Sowth, containeth Peru and and Bresil &c. All this 27 the Southe Sea: L’Epitome has “la Mer Meridionale” (3v). ET may be conflating “la Mer Mediterranée” with “la Mer Meridionale” at this early stage in her project. Later on, however, she does translate “la Mer Mediterranée” as “the Meditereanean Sea,” beginning with “Sicilia” (Mirror 37v). See Introduction. 28 containing rounde aboute 200 leagues: reading uncertain. L’Epitome has “contenant à la ronde environ cent lieuës,” i.e., “measuring 100 leagues around” (3r). ET tends to simplify numbers, not inflate them. (See Introduction.) Her “2” can resemble her “1,” which she writes with serifs; however, the digit here is written with what appears to be a continuous stroke, and the downstroke is slightly curved. It does appear to most eyes more closely to resemble the other “2”s in the manuscript than the “1”s. 29 There is a small triangular hole in fol. 5 about 3 in. from the top. The paper is torn on only two sides of the triangle, with the result that most of the torn piece is not missing but, still attached along one side, is folded over onto the verso of the leaf. (The transcription issues specific to “Englande” [5v] are dealt with in notes 35, 36, and 37.) The tear most likely occurred after ET wrote the texts on 5r and 5v but before she completed the ms: it cuts through letters and words on both sides of the folio, but on the folded piece itself there are words that appear to be in ET ’s hand, partially replacing words obscured by the fold. Although the visible surface of this folded piece was originally part of 5r, it has been folded back over 5v, which it partly covers; the words written on it belong to the “Englande” text of 5v. This piece bears traces of what may be words from the “new Worlde” text of 5r, but not all of these can be identified with certainty without damaging the paper. 30 New land: i.e., Newfoundland. L’Epitome has “Terre neuve” (4v).
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country (except some little) is under the Kinge of Spaine his Dominion. These saide countries be so full of golde t[hat (th]ough it seeme incredible) those of Anzerme (a province in [Pe]ru[)] were wont to arme themselves therein from head to foote, [a]s m[en]31 do here in iron, And the Spaniards in the conqest thereof, (a[s] they write them selves) made horshooes of it for want of iron. Allso in Collao, a place in Peru, they founde a house; of which the walles and the roofe was of pure golde.32 Which is no greate wonder if that be true which Giraua writeth, which is, that by Quito there is a certaine mine, which hath more golde in it, then earth. Amongst other excellent thinges, (of which it is very fertill,) it yeldeth such quantity of suger, that now a daies it is commonly used in kitchins, whereas before it was not to be had but in Apothocaries shopps, that kept it for Medicines. Before the Spanish nation discovered this new worlde, there was no beast of service but one only kinde of red animall, (which they called a sheepe of Peru) of the bignes of an asse, and the fashion of a Cammell. [followed by forward slash] [5v] Englande . [followed by very small graphic symbol]33 This Ile heretofore called Allbion, is at this time devided into two particular Realmes of which the greatest and most spacious towardes South, is called Englande, and the other towardes Northe is cleped Scotlande. They be devided on the East side by the river Twede, and by the mountaine Cheviota within the country, and certaine rivers springinge out of the saide mountaine,and34 fal[linge i]nto35 the sea
31 t[hat (th]ough … [a]s m[en]: A tear in the paper obscures certain words (see note 29). The text has been reconstructed by consulting L’Epitome and ET ’s context. 32 the walles and the roofe was of pure golde: ET introduces the subject-verb agreement error here. L’Epitome has “les parois & le toict estoyent d’or pur” (4v). 33 See Introduction for discussion of the significance of ET ’s title designs, this one in particular. 34 mountaine,and: There is no space between the comma and the word “and” in ET ’s ms. The words are crowded into the end of a line. 35 fal[linge i]nto: There is a gap about ½ in. wide in the ms at this point (see note 29; see also figure 6). This reconstruction is based on L’Epitome’s “tombans dans la Mer” (5v) and on ET ’s spelling of “springinge” in the same sentence. Neither “fallinge” nor “falling” occurs elsewhere in this translation.
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neere Solway. It is the best ile of all Europe, the lan[d] very frutefull,36 fertill in flesh and other victualls, In suc[h] sorte [t]hat37 meat is allwaies more cheape, there then on this side the sea. It is very rich of sheepe, the which (because there be no wolves in all the ile) feede securely in the fieldes. These sheepe have the best wooll that is to be seene, of which the inhabitants make so greate quantity of cloth, that they furnish allmost all parts of the worlde, and enrich them selves allso, the trafficke which they bring being, so greate, that the clothes38 and carsies39 which they bring into Anwerpe, do amount yearely to the summ (as Lewes Guithiardin40 writeth) of more then of 4 millions. And theire woole (of which the staple is at Bruges,) surmounteth annually the sum 500000 florents. They have the finest tinn the cruellst dogs; and the most sweete and delicate oisters in the world. Unto this Englande there apertaine some certaine litle isles, as Mon, which the Englishmen call Anglesey41 Man, Wighte Sorlinges, Gernsey, and Jarsey &c. and42 allthough the
36 the lan[d] very frutefull: There is a gap of about ¼ in. here; the torn piece of paper is folded over top of, and thus obscures, another ¼ in. of the line (see note 29). However, ET has addressed this problem by writing the word “lan[d]” on the piece now covering the line. I assume no other words missing or hidden, since L’Epitome reads “de terre tresfeconde” (5v). 37 In suc[h] sorte [t]hat: L’Epitome has “de sorte que” (5v). The tear in the ms occurs after the “c” in “such”; the torn piece is folded over the first letter of “[t]hat,” obscuring it; the visible surface of the folded piece bears the word “sorte.” See note 29. 38 clothes: not clothing, but cloth or fabric: L’Epitome has “draps” (5v). 39 carsies: variant of “kerseys”: lengths of coarse woolen fabric (OED). 40 Lewes Guithiardin: Lodovico Guicciardini (Florence, 1521 – Antwerp, 1589), “Loys Guicciardini” in L’Epitome (5v). Neither his name nor the information ascribed to him here and in L’Epitome appears in such earlier editions of Ortelius as the 1570 Latin folio Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published by Diesth. Since Guicciardini’s book, Descrittione di tutti i paesi Bassi, and L’Epitome were both published in Antwerp by Plantin, the three references to Guicciardini’s work in this edition may have been inserted as a form of advertisement. A new edition of Descrittione came out in 1588, the same year as this edition of L’Epitome (Bowen and Imhof, Christopher Plantin, 198). 41 Anglesey: ET appears to have written “Anglesea” originally and then amended it. Camden has “Anglesey” (Britain, 67). See Introduction for discussion of ET ’s spelling of place names. 42 and: L’Epitome begins a new sentence at this point.
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two last seeme of righte to be Colonies to fraunce because they are neerer it, yet they are provinces subject to43 the crowne of England[.] [6r] Scotlande [followed by small graphic symbol] The realme of Scotlande is a parte of the isle of B/r/ittany drawing northward. It is devided into two parts by the knaggy44 and dreadfull mountaine Grampias which beginneth at the banck of the Ocean drawinge eastward to the head of the river D[ee,]45 and sowthward to the Lake Loumond which is in length 24 leagues and 8 in breadth[,] containge 30 isles of which one continually46 flo[ats he]re and there with all theire cattell and houses therein. The inh[abi]tants which dwell on this side the mountaine, are amiable well [mann]ered and speake the english language.47 Those those that dwell on the other side, are uncivell people cruell and barbarous, theire habit48 and language beinge irish. The soile of this territory is not so frutefull as that of englande but it is more mountainous and watry. There are sutch a greate company of ports and havens of the sea upon the Ocean which watreth it so, that there is no house that standeth 20 leagues from salt water. The mountaines are bravely garnished with faire greene delectable woodes, and Princelike noble forrests enclosinge many pastorall plaines and fountaines full of fish, in such sorte that the inhabitants findeth much victualls when the retire thither which commodity maketh them
43 subject to: L’Epitome has “soubs” (5v), i.e., “under.” See Introduction. 44 knaggy: “Abounding in pointed protuberances, knobs, or knots: knotty, rough, rugged,” first used in print 1552 (OED). L’Epitome has “rabouteuse” (6v), i.e., “rough, rugged” (HCR). 45 D[ee,]: There is a small hole in the paper at this point. L’Epitome has “Dea” (5v). 46 continually: ET appears to have written “contiuually” and then amended it. 47 flo[ats he]re and there … The inh[abi]tants … are amiable well [mann]ered and speake the english language: There is a piece missing (apparently torn) from fol. 6. This affects three lines of text on this side; I have provided the missing letters by consulting the source text and ET ’s context. L’Epitome has “dont l’une vague & flotte continuellement ça & là … Les habitans … sont humains, bien moriginez, courtois, & de langue Angloise” (6v). Although in modern French “moriginez” means “taken to task; sermonized” (HCR), in the Renaissance the term had more positive connotations and meant well brought up, well taught, or inculcated with good manners (LMF ). 48 habit: i.e., manner of dress. L’Epitome has “accoustrement” (6v).
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invincible.49 The principall towne of Scotlande is Edenbrough and here is the castell surnamed by many authors: OFF MAYDES GREATLY ESTEEMED.50 Two thousand paces from thence springeth a fountain in which ther moveth and swimmeth dropes of oile, the number whereof never deminisheth though there be some taken away, and though there be non the number doth not augment: which is a very admirable thinge. This oile is goode againste many galles. [followed by a forward slash] [6v]51 Irelande [followed by a small graphic symbol] Irelande (called by the inhabitants Erin) is the greatest of all Iles next to Brittaine:52 it is a country very full of mountaines, thickets, pondes and waters. Also many faier rivers of which, the greatest largest and most renowned is called Sinenus or Shenin.53 Uppon the toppe of the highest mountaines there be pondes and pooles and in some places there be faiere plaines. The grounde is very fertill and so fatt54 that sometimes they are faine to take theire cattell from the pastures least they should burst with over feeding: The forrestes be all fu[ll of w]ilde beastes allmost of all sortes. But there be no venomous beaste[s,] for if there be any brought thither they dye imediatly. There be ma[ny k]inde of strainge birdes, amongest others there is the Barnacle which[h is]
49 invincible: ET eliminates L’Epitome’s redundancy here: cf. “invincibles & indomtables” (L’Epitome, 6v). 50 the castell surnamed by many authors: OFF MAYDES GREATLY ESTEEMED: L’Epitome has “le chasteau surnommé aux Pucelles; grandement estimé de plusieurs autheurs” (6v). See Introduction. 51 The hole in fol. 6 affects four of the lines of text on this side of the folio; the missing letters have been provided by consulting L’Epitome and ET ’s context. See note 47. 52 Brittaine: reading uncertain: could be “Biittaine.” Or ET may have dotted her “r.” 53 Sinenus or Shenin: i.e., Shannon. This is more of a transcription than a translation: L’Epitome has “Sinnenus ou Shenin” (7v). Cf. the English translation of Camden, which has “Shanon” (“Ireland,” Britain, 81). See Introduction. 54 so fatt: L’Epitome has “tresgrasse” (7v). ET consistently translates “grasse” as “fatt” throughout the ms. “Grasse” can mean either “fat” or “luxuriant, abundant” (HCR); LMF gives “Riche, fertile” as the first meaning of “gras.” Since in ET ’s time the English “fat” could be used to describe soil in the sense of “fertile, rich” (OED), this is not a mistranslation, although it may seem so to modern eyes.
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bred of the branch55 of an Elme which falles into the Sea in convenient time in cockles like moulds.56 when that it is falne the birde fleeth.57 The principall towne of the region is Dublin, which is under the jurisdiction of the English princes and so is all the east parte, but the west parte appertaineth to sundry lordes that do inhabite there. The people of this ile are poorely apparrelled58 in black clothe, (for theire sheepe be all black) and that verry clownishly.59 They weare little hoodes which come to theire elbowes and breeches that reach to theire knees: they have neither bridles saddles nor spurrs when they ride but only a rod pliant at the end whth60 which they govern theire horse. They goe to warres with 3 sortes of weapons (theire bodies unarmed) to witt longe darts, sharpe darts, and cleavinge hatchets, They be very rude grosse and barbarouse, yet they be very much geven to musick in which they be well skilled. They esteeme liberty more then riches. [followed by small graphic symbol] [7r] Tercera. The Ile of Tercera in the Northerne sea is soe called because it is third of the Acores, otherwise called the Iles of Flanders because they weare first discovered by certaine Flamenges of the towne of Bruges which inhabited and peopled it. The soile is verie full of mountaines, but verie
55 the Barnacle which[h is] bred of the branch: L’Epitome has “Bernaques, lequel est produit de branches” (7v). See note 56. 56 in cockles like moulds: L’Epitome has “en coquiles semblables à celles des moules” (7v). “Moules” means “mussels” as well as “moulds”; a more accurate translation would thus be “in shells resembling mussel shells.” The belief that barnacle geese grew on trees in shells, and survived if the shells fell into the sea, where they eventually hatched, was common in the Middle Ages and was kept popular in the early modern period by the circulation of such texts as Mandeville’s Travels. 57 the bird fleeth: L’Epitome has “l’oiseau s’en volle” (7v), i.e., “the bird takes flight.” 58 poorely apparrelled: a more negative description than in L’Epitome: “portent simples vestements” (7v). 59 clownishly: L’Epitome has “à la rustique” (7v). The first meaning of “clown” in ET ’s day was “countryman, rustic, or peasant,” but the term had also acquired its more negative second meaning of ill-mannered boor by this time (OED). ET translates “rustique” as “rude” later in this same paragraph. 60 whth: reading uncertain: “with” probably intended. The hand is very cramped at this point.
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pleasante by reason of faire Cedars that growe there in greate number. The havens be for the most parte perilous to come unto because they be full of rockes.61 Otherwise it is fertill and fruitfull of many kindes of fruites as of verie faire Lemons, excellente Oranges, &c: greate quantitie of good Corne, and much flower[,] whiche groweth annuallye by Los ALTORES et Los FOLHADAYS to the quantitie of 800 bushells and more. There are some grapes also but little ande greene. The principall towne is called ANGRA, built upon twoe faire rivers, of the which one falls into the sea, and maketh 18 milles grinde; and the other in passing by leaveth a pleasant coole running springe wch is very commodious to the Cittizens. It haith (as all other Ilandes have) upon the coastes good fortifications and munitions as mightie bulwarkes, and impregnable fortresses. It hath about it by equal distance one from the other little towers, and amongste ye rest a high and rockye Promontorie called the pointe of BRASIL; at the bottome of which they have one verie strong tower defensible against all assaultes of invasion[.]62 [7v] Spaine is Spaine is environed rownde about with sea excepte that parte which is annexed to Fraunce from which it is divided by the Pirenian mountaines. It containeth in it 14 Realmes[,] and these be they: the ould and newe realme of Castilia, Leon, Aragon, Catalonia, Navarra, Asturia, Granado, Valencia, Toledo, Gallioia63 Murcia, Corduba, Portingalia, Algarba. The revennewe of wch annuallie exceedeth the somme of five millions of ducates. There are 21 Dukes and as many Marquesses: 62 Earles and vicontes besydes other Barons and Gentlemen of wch there be a greate company More[o]ver there are eight Archbyshoprikes, 48 Byshoprickes wch have a yearlie revennewe of 4000 ducates, wch is sufficient testimonye of the fertilitie and riches thereof. This Spaine besydes the silver mynes that it haith aboundeth much in oyle figgs, reasons64 with many other good fruites, and faire horses. The cuntrie of Biscaya yeeldeth iron of 61 they be full of rockes: By ending her sentence here ET omits translating the details added by L’Epitome: “pour estre pleines de rochers, & n’avoir gueres de ports qui soyent propres à surgir & aborder” (8v). See Introduction. 62 all assaultes of invasion: ET compresses the original: “contre l’invasion & surprinse de l’ennemy” (8v). 63 Gallioia: L’Epitome has “Gallicie” (9v). 64 reasons: A mistranslation. L’Epitome has “raisins” (9v), i.e., “grapes.”
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greate estimation, & in the river Tagus, (now by the inhabitants called Tayo) there is gould found and fished for but not so greate quantitie as heretofore. The principall marchant towne is called SEVILLA from whence there commeth all the principall Marchandises of America into Annwarpe and consequentlie to all Europe[.] [8r] Portingall This Realme was woonte to be contained under the name of Spaine till the yeare of our Saviour 1100 it fell out in this sorte.65 In this tyme there raigned Alfonso the sixth kinge of that name who hunted the Moores out of Toledo[,] and of many places of Spaine. And in the victories wch he had against the Moores one Don Henrico Earle of Lorraine had faithfullie served and assisted him. Alfonso willinge to make the Earle some honorable recompence for his [fa]ithfull66 service gave him to wife the faire Ladye Teresa his daughter,67 & for her dourie all that wch in the cuntrie of Lusitania, (now called Portingall) he had gotten from the Moores, and all those cuntries wch hereafter he could conquer. In the which exploite he behaved himselfe so valiantlie and his successors after him, that the kings of Portingall long since called themselves Kinges of Algarba, of Guinea, of Æthiopia, of Arabia, of Persia, & of India besides Lorde and Commaunder of all the Costes from the realme of Portingall to Cabo de Lampe: and all the Iles thereaboutes he commaundes in Bresil in such sorte that there is no Realme stretcheth further then this, for under the name and authoritie thereof there is more then 200 degrees of the 360 which is the compass of the whole worlde.68 The principall towne is LISBON situated upon the river Tagus, in
65 it fell out in this sorte: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “qu’il en fut divisé en ceste sorte” (10v). 66 [fa]ithfull: There is a small hole in the paper at this point. L’Epitome has “fideles” (10v). 67 the faire Ladye Teresa his daughter: This epithet considerably enhances the honour shown to Teresa in L’Epitome, which identifies the bride merely as “sa fille Teresa” (10v). See Introduction. 68 of the 360 which is the compass of the whole worlde: ET ’s choice of “compass” makes this a particularly elegant rendition of the original: “des 360. que la terre universelle contient en sa rondeur” (L’Epitome, 10v). The circle on a compass is, of course, divided into 360 degrees.
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the pendante of the mountaine,69 a marchant towne greatlie renowned, and not wthout reason, for it participateth unto us70 all kindes of beneficiall marchandises that nature and art bringeth us foorth, aswell in Affrica & in Asia, as in the Iles sited thereaboutes. [8v] Andalusia This province of Spaine (wherein the principal and Episcopal towne of SEVILLA is71 called Andalusia passeth all the rest in riches, fertilitie[,] and singular civilitie[.] It is soe named because of the Wandalls which in times past had it in subjection. Pliny calleth it Conventus Hispalensis, and they call it the happiest of ye four borders,72 aswell for the greate frequentacion & concurse of the people, as for the greate riches and abundance of all thinges. wch the G[reek]es73 themselves acknowleged, who attributed to these cuntries the pleasures of th’Elysian feildes. There are 200 excellente townes besides the villages. Soe that this corner hath more judgemente townes then the other altogether. This Diocesse hath on the orientall parte the Territorie of Corduba, on the Occidentall, The frontierers of Algarba Northwarde is joyned to a parte of Portingall which is called THE MAGISTRATE OF St JAMES. as for the south parte it is annexed to the corner of Cadis endinge at the sea. The principall towne is SEVILLA sited in a fair & pleasante situation where the river Betis falleth into ye sea now called
69 in the pendante of the mountaine: L’Epitome has “au pendant de la montaigne” (10v), i.e., “in the shadow of the mountain.” In Renaissance French, “pendre” could mean “pencher,” i.e., “to lean over,” as well as “to hang” (LMF ). 70 it participateth unto us: L’Epitome has “elle nous mande & faict participants de” (10v). Although now obsolete, ET ’s use of “participateth unto,” to mean “impart to” or “share with” others, is correct for her day (OED). 71 (wherein … SEVILLA is: ET omits the closing parenthesis that is found in the original. 72 the happiest of ye four borders: L’Epitome has “la plus heureuse des quatre Convents de toute l’Espagne” (10v). ET translates “convent” as “corner” elsewhere in this paragraph. 73 G[reek]es: There is a small hole in the paper here. L’Epitome has “Grecs” (10v), which ET translates as either “Greeks” or “Greekes” elsewhere in the manuscript.
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Quadalquivir.74 This river takyn[g]75 her sorce betweene the mountaines of Sierra Sagura and passeth before many faire townes, amongste the rest the illustrate & most noble towne of SEVILLA, hertofore called ROMULEA. He taketh his issewe navigable and rich of fish 60000 paces into the sea by Cadis, of both sides having olive trees[,] vines pleasante[,] & flourishinge gardens, alsoe the moste excellente smell of Pomecytreons.76 [9r] Valentia Amongste the 14 Realmes of Spaine Valentia is not the leaste. This region hath his name of the principal towne soe called; being a marchante towne, and an Archbyshoprick the Archbishope whereof receaveth a yearlie revennewe of 13000 ducates as Marianea a Silician and Damian a Goth write. This towne hath heretofore bene called ROME, wch name was imposed by a Kinge of the same name, as the Spaniardes write in their Annalls. That it is of greate antiquitie wee reade in P[lin]y /fa/77 who saith it was made a Colonie by the Romanes, and the testimonye of this is an old stone whereupon is engraven COLONIA JULIA VALENTIA. Peter Anthonie Beuther in his Chronicle of Spaine, saith it was called Rome till the Romanes tooke it, & they named it Valentia. In the yeare of our Lord 40078 there was a Councel houlden /there/. There are many antiquites in this towne to be founde, as ould Marble, aunciente Pictures, and such like. In this Province there are likewise other renowned townes as MORVEDAR in times past called SAGUNTUM. SEGORBA or Segorbia, and many more. The rivers that water this Region are MILLAR, MORVEDAR, GUADALAVEIR, XUCAR, & SEGURA. The Cuntrie is good 74 where the river Betis falleth into ye sea now called Quadalquivir: ET has misplaced a modifying phrase here. Cf. L’Epitome: “où la riviere Betis, maintenant dicte Guadalquivir, se degorge en la Mer” (11v). 75 takyn[g]: reading uncertain. ET may have written “takes” and then amended it by writing “yng” over the original “es.” 76 Pomecytreons: i.e., pome-citrons, a name, now obsolete, for citrons. The citron is “a citrus fruit of warm climates resembling a large lemon but having less acid flesh and a thick fragrant peel” (OED). L’Epitome has “citrons” (11v). 77 /fa/: a puzzling insertion. ET may have begun to correct her text for some reason and then changed her mind. 78 400: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “quatre cents soixante six [466]” (12v).
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& fruitefull. There are twoe Mountaines, of which one is called MARIOLA, and thother PENNA COLOSA[,] on which there are many holesome hearbes[,] for wch there repaire dalie many Physitians. There are mines of silver at Buriott. In a Cuntrie called Piacente there is much Allablaster, and Alome[.] [9v] Cadis Strabo Pliny and some others weare of opynion that Cadis is twoe Iles: Melay, Solin, Denis, and Ptolemie saie there is but one wch they call Gadiro, and a towne of the same name. Those that make twoe call one the greate, thother ye little. This hath bene called Erithea and Aphrodisea, as Pliny, Philistidis, Timeus Silenus, Pherecides, and Strabo write wch they call the Ile of Juno. The greate alsoe hath bene called perticularlie by the inhabitantes Erithia and Continusa. Plinie saith the Carthaginians called it Gadir and the Romanes named it Tartisson. There is but one Ile now (wch is much lessened by the inundation of the Ocean Sea) Spaniards call it Cadis, and the towne in like manner. The citie of Cadis is now a Bishopricke. The inhabitantes of this said Ile and towne have bene had in greate estimation for the arte of navigation, and yet they have not loste their aunciente experience, for they have good skill in the Seaes. Their principall proffit commeth of makinge salte, and takinge of troutes.79 The catchinge of tha fish is there solemnized everie yeare. They cutt it in peeces, and salt it up in barrells everie yeare, and send it to sell almost into everie parte of Europe. The auncientes have beleeved that the weste endde of this Ile is the endde80 of the worlde. And yet the mariners of Flanders81 call the Weste Promontorie of the Ile (wch the Spaniards call PUNTA DE S: SEBASTIANO) HET EYNDE DER WERELL,82 that is to saie, the einde of the worlde. 79 troutes: L’Epitome has “des tonnins” (13v), an archaic form of “thon,” i.e., “tuna” (DAF ). 80 endde … is the endde: In each case ET appears to have first written “einde” and then amended it to read “endde.” 81 the mariners of Flanders: L’Epitome has “les mariniers de nostre païs de Flandre” (13v). See Introduction. 82 HET EYNDE DER WERELL: ET appears to have altered the spelling of the German phrase in L’Epitome (“Het eynde der werelt”) without attempting to translate it (13v). See note 421.
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[10r]83 France [followed by a new style of graphic symbol] Fraunce is called in Latyn Gallia. Yet Gallia stretcheth further then France, for all the Cuntrie that is betwene the Perenean mountaines, the English and French sea, betwene Rhin, the Italian Mountaines, and the south sea84 hath bene called Gallia. And more then that all Lombardie haith bene called Gallia Cizalpina. But now onlie those Cuntries are called France that the kinge hath under his jurisdiction, to witt, all that wch is situated from Strasbourowe to the Alpes,85 & then to the sea, and then from the Pyreneis to th’others sea, and by the sea to Calais, and so straite to Strasborowe.86 /Wee nevertheles/ drawe a line87 without danger groslye, for the said cuntries are not parted justlie from oures appertaininge to the house of Burgonie and Savoy is seated88 on this side the hills belonginge to the prince of Piedmonte. a parte of Loraine and Suetheland.89 But because this is little in comparison of the whole it seemeth to be of small waighte. Therfore to describe this 83 At this point ET changes her practice of starting a new page for each map description. Although her description of France takes up at least two-thirds of the page, she begins “Gascoine” below it, writing only the title and four lines of text before having to continue the rest recto. See Note on the Text. 84 south sea: L’Epitome has “la Mer Mediterranée” (14v). See Introduction. 85 to the Alpes: ET omits the clarification added in L’Epitome, which has “aux Alpes, ou montagnes Italiques” (14v). 86 and so straite to Strasborowe: ET omits the map-making detail of L’Epitome, which has “& puis de là, d’une ligne tirée jusques à Strasbourg susdit” (14v). See Introduction. 87 /Wee nevertheles/ drawe a line: Cf. “nous tirons ceste ligne” in L’Epitome. ET ’s deliberations here, as evidenced by words stricken out and inserted, suggest that she realized the difficulty she faced at this point, having already decided to omit the first reference to the imaginary boundary line that now comes up for discussion once again in this sentence. See note 86. 88 oures appertaininge to the house of Burgonie and Savoy is seated: ET ’s somewhat casual approach to punctuation, including end punctuation, results in real lack of clarity here. L’Epitome has “nostres, appertenans sous la maison de Bourgongne. Et aussi le païs de Savoye est situé …” (14v). 89 belonginge to the prince of Piedmonte. a parte of Loraine and Suetheland: ET has left a space between “Piedmonte” and “a parte,” possibly intending to fill it in later with the translation of a term that was giving her difficulty. L’Epitome has “sous la jurisdiction du Prince de Piedmont: & semblablement une partie de Lorraine; & le païs des Suysses, &c.” (14v). ET again appears to have had dif-
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Cuntrie of France more distinctlie wee will sett downe everie Cuntrie appertaininge therto more perticularlie, and here they followe; Provence Dauphine, Breste, Burgonie, Campanie, Picardie, Normandie, Britanie, Angers[,] Poitou, Santoine, Gascoine, these be the utmost limites of France. In the center of this Realme is France, Beause, Gastinois, Nivernois, Burbonois, Forrest, Languedoc, Averne, Limosin, Touraine. Gascoine [followed by small graphic symbol] The Cuntrie of Gascony is called otherwise NOVEMPOPULARI[.] Amonge all the townes of this Cuntrie B/o/URDE/a/UX and THOLOUSE are the most worthie. BOURDEAUX an aunciente & famous towne is seated upon rivers proceedinge from GaroNA. [10v] It is adorned wth a faire universitie, florishinge wth all arte and sciences[,] where are schooles of lawe and Theologie and of humaine learninges.90 This is the seate of the Muses, the angle where Vertewe shineth91 for there is nothing rare in other Citties, but in this is common;92 be it for delicate meates, for curiouse93 weapons, for marchandise, but most of all for learninge. There are many greate antiquities, as the Tutrix palace wch (as Belforest thinketh) was dedicated to the Genius of the cittie, and to the Gods preservers94 thereof. Out of this towne there is another called the GALLIAN palaice this is wthout doubte an amphitheater made in the fashion of a cowe.95 As for Tholouse, some saie it was built longe
90 91
92
93 94 95
ficulty making sense of all these landmarks and geographical relationships. See Introduction. humaine learninges: L’Epitome has “des lettres humaines” (15v). the angle where Vertewe shineth: L’Epitome has “la corne d’abondance de tout bien” (15v). Horn, as in “horn of plenty,” rather than “angle,” is probably a more accurate rendition of the original French in this context. for there is nothing rare in other Citties, but in this is common: a free and stylish translation of the original. L’Epitome has “Car il n’y a perfection és autres villes, qui ne se trouve en ceste cy” (15v). for curiouse weapons: a slight elaboration on the original. L’Epitome has no adjective corresponding to “curiouse”: “soit pour les armes” (15v). the Gods preservers: L’Epitome has “Dieux tutelaires” (15v). made in the fashion of a cowe: L’Epitome has “fait en forme ovale” (L’Epitome, 15v). It is difficult to understand why ET would translate “ovale” as “cowe,” and this editor entertained alternative readings such as “corve” (according to the
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tyme before the dystruction of Troye, others in the tyme of Belbora96 a Jeweish Ladie endowed wth gravitie and wisdome.97 The cuntrie about it is fatt, rich, fruitfull, plentifull of all that a man can wish for the sustenaunce of his life This cittie of Tholouse is beautifull wth one of the most famous universities in all Europe. There is alsoe a Parliamente and a Seneschalls Courte. Poitoue The Cuntrie of Poitou is now devided into High and Lowe. That parte that stretcheth to ye Aquitanian sea westwarde, is called Lowe Poitou: and that wch boundeth to Touraine and Berry Eastwarde is the high Poitou. This Cuntrie is replenished wth 98 all sortes of fruites, Beastes, wine wheate and faire fishinge, and most of all it aboundeth in birdes and savage beastes;99 therefore there is much huntinge hawkinge and fishinge These are greate commodities[.] There are many good townes of wch the thre principall are Bishoprikes, to witt POITIERS, LUSAN, MALLEZAIS wch have 1200 Dioceses or parishes under them. POITIERS is the greatest towne in all France next to Paris. There is much waste lande unedified,100 and the most parte thereof is girt in with the river of Clain. The antiquitie thereof is welle knowne by the Theater called ARENES, the Gallien pallace the water Conduits wch as yett remayne there in101 the neighbori/n/ge sea, there are these Iles OLERON, The Ile of RE rich in wine, not farr from ROCHEL the black Ile, or MARMONshire wch is plentifull in Salt, the PININSULA Aulona which yeeldeth both salt and wyne, and soe doth the Ile of OED a large, strong basket, perhaps also a misspelling of “curve”). However, the
word “cowe” is all too clearly legible. 96 Belbora: reading uncertain. The “B” may be a very ornate “D.” L’Epitome has “Delbora” (15v). 97 Jeweish Ladie endowed wth gravitie and wisdome: L’Epitome has “dame Juifue tressage” (15v). Once again ET elaborates on the original to give increased honour to a female figure. See Introduction. 98 replenished wth: L’Epitome has “tresfertil en” (16v). 99 savage beastes: L’Epitome has “bestes sauvages” (16v); this could also be translated as “wild beasts.” 100 unedified: i.e., not built upon. L’Epitome has “non basti” (16v). 101 there in: Here ET again neglects to clearly mark the end of one sentence and the beginning of the next, creating some confusion for the reader. Cf. L’Epitome: “… Conduits d’eaux qui encores y sont. En la prochaine Mer …” (16v).
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CHAVET, the Ile of GOD, and yt wch is called the Ile of our Lady of BOVIN[.] [11r]102 Britanye Britany heretofore called ARMORICA haith borderinge upon it Eastward the Cuntrie of MAINE and parte of Anjou Northward the Britanish sea, and parte of the Constantinian Cuntrye westwarde the Ocean sea[,] and Southwarde the landes of Poitou.103 This Brytany is divided into Three languages, and everie language haith his regions and Dioceses, whereof there be three wch speake Breton Bretonant, wch is imagined to be the auncient Language of the first inhabitantes of the Cuntrie; and their Dioceses be CORNWALL[,] (whereof the inhabitantes be called Cornubiens) Saint PAUL and TREGUIERS. Then there be the BRITAN GALOTTS to witt those that speake French those be the people of DOL RHEMES and Saint MALO wch have been called ALETEENES. Th’other speake a mixt language sometymes French, and the Briton tounge when they please, and these be thre Dioceses wch be NANTES, VANNES & S BRIEWE. And so in breife you see there are nyne Byshorickes in this province. The Metrapolitan of Dole haith bene their præsident[.] The princ[i]pall townes in Britany be REINES and NANTES in so much that REINES is chosen for the seate of the Parliamente and the soveraigne Courte of Brytanie. The Citie of Reines is one of the auncientest in Fraunce and one of the best Byshoprickes in Brittaine. there is the seate of the Chamber of accomptes. The Countrie is pleasant and fruitefull, the earth is as fertill as one would wish the feildes are abundante, the landes for pasture, and the forrests for their service, the Sea for their traffique from which they drawe salte baked with the force of the sunne. They wante noe Iron nor Leade, and in some places there are mynes of sylver.
102 There is a hole in fol. 11 about two-thirds down; however, since “Britanye” occupies only slightly more than half the page, no text is lost on fol. 11r. Although ET continues to write in a relatively cramped hand here, she does not attempt to fit a second description onto the page. 103 ET omits from her translation the sentence that follows “les terres Poitevines [the landes of Poitou]”: “Et par ce est ce païs divisé en littoral ou maritime, & en terre ferme ou continent” (17v).
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[11v] Normandy This countrie and Duchie of Normandy for his limitts beginneth of the Eastside towards Fraunce where Paris is to the river Epte which passeth by the towne of Gisors the suburbes of Saint Coler and the village of Gani and from thence descendes into the river of Seine by Saint Givery Geneva104 nere to the townes of Vernon which is seated on thother side /the/ river, though in outward semblance it begines at the towne of Pontoise, for all that which is contained on this side the bridge which is upon the said river of Epta wch they call the French Veulquessin is comprehended under the generalitie of Normandy and paieth the subsidie ordained for the said generalitie under the Generall of Normandy at Rouen and likewise the Cleargie obayeth to the Archbyshopp at Roane whose Jurisdiction reacheth to the bridge and river of Vise. Westwarde it borders upon Britany, from which it is seperated by the river of Crevon. Northwarde upon the Sea. Southward upon Maine. The river of SEIN divideth this Province into twoe partes. It is a very rich Province105 in all kinde of trafficke and marchandise there wanteth nothinge needfull for the life of man. The people are the wisest and sutlest in all Fraunce the hardest to be deceived, affable and cou/r/teous, much given to learninge but more to their proffit. The common people use for the most parte to spinne & weave cloath. But in generall they have all good witts,106 and they be very well learned in proces & pleadinge. [12r] Anjou The Country of Anjou was an Earldome and was reduced into a Duchie An: 1350.107 Though it be not very large yet there is no Country in 104 Saint Givery Geneva: reading uncertain. L’Epitome has “S. Geneviefue givery” (18v). 105 Province: L’Epitome has “Duché” (18v). 106 they have all good witts: L’Epitome has “ils sont tous fins & rusez” (18v). ET ’s rendition is more complimentary than a more literal one would be, since “fin” means “subtle” or “sharp” and “rusez” means “cunning, crafty, sly” (HCR). In Renaissance French, “fin” could mean “parfait, excellent, complet,” but it could also mean “malin,” i.e., “malignant” (LMF ). See note 226 and Introduction. 107 an Earldom … reduced into a Duchie: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “une Comte, & fut reduit en Duché” (19v), but “reduit” could mean “changed” as well
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Fraunce exceedeth it in fruitfulnes be it of wyne or any thinge yt may serve for the necessitie or superfluitie108 of mans life. The wyne is counted the best of any thereabouts. They be very rich in Cattell, kine Beefes, sheepe & Fish. There are many Fountaines, springes, Pooles, Pondes, and more then 36 fair brookes or rivers whereof LOIRE & MAINE are the best. Moreover it is garnished with fair Meadowes, pastures, Forrestes, woodds and mountaines: from whence there are digged stones, Marble and Charcoale.109 The principall towne is ANGIERS built on both sides upon Maine[,] a very aunciente and renowned towne as it appeareth by the aunciente ruines of a Theater not farr from thence. There is a very faire bridge of carved stoane, and a fair Academie founded the yeare 109.110 [12v] The Countrie of BERRY. This Countrie is situated almost in the middle of all Fraunce a very fruiteful corner, plentifull in wyne, Corne and Cattell. There is good pasture for sheepe, soe that there is greate traffick of woolle and Cloath made in the principall towne which is called BURGES, it hath bene called AVARICUM[.] it is an Archbyshopricke, There is an universitie and Colleges.111 There is greate traffick of the Cloaths that are maide there, soe that there are six faires annually houlden for ye saile thereof. It is a stronge towne. There are many townes under the Jurisdiction thereof; as Sanxerra wch is an Earldome. This towne haith bene called GORDON, or, as some thinke, SACRUM CERERIS. There is much
108 109
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as “reduced” in 16th-C French (DUF ). Cf. Shawe: “In former times this province was but a countie, but in the yeare of our Lorde 1530. the title of a dukedome was purchased to it” (19v). ET recognizes her error by the time she finishes this project: see notes 273 and 289. See also Introduction. superfluitie: a polite translation of L’Epitome’s “volupté” (19v). stones, Marble and Charcoale: slightly compressed at the cost of some accuracy. Cf. L’Epitome: “de belles pierres de taille, marbres, & ardoises” (19v), i.e., “nice freestone [stone good for cutting], marble and slate.” See note 174. the yeare 109: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “l’an 1389” (19v). and Colleges: in L’Epitome, “& sept Colleges de Chanoines” (20v). There are several instances in this map description of ET ’s omitting minor details, possibly motivated by the unusual length of the text, which fits onto a single page in L’Epitome only because it is printed in a smaller type size than most of the other descriptions in the volume.
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good wyne about Sanxerra called Sanxerra wyne[,] and much venison. Then St SATUR upon LOIRE wherin there is a rich Abbey compassed all aboute with high walls, towres and gates. The Abbott thereof is Lorde of the towne. AIS of Angilion towne and Castle. In the Castle there is a Church with a Canonry. This towne is seated very richlie, and in fatt grounde. MOUNTFANCON the towne is situated in the plaine and the Castell upon the toppe of a mote. There are many Forrests and rivers full of Fish thereaboutes. LURI is a little towne but the Castle is very well fortified. YSSOUDEIN is a towne, the Jurisdiction whereof stretcheth very farr. Thereabouts very goode wyne is made. There is much Cattel by reason of fatt pastures wch are about this towne. Then there is112 CHARROTTS, CHASEAUROUX, GRATAY, LINIERES, St SEVERE & ARGENTON wch is a very AUNCIENTE towne there are many antiquities founde there above grounde. Then BOUSSAC, CHESTREM in BERRY CHASEAU MILAN113 BOURG, CHASTEL, MOTTE, FULHY, MAREULE there are mynes of Iron. VOULLON, NEUPAY, AUGURANDE MASSEURE, COUDRAY, DUM LE ROI, CHASTEAUNEUF, VIERZON, NEHUN heretofore called MEDIOLANUM [13r] It haith the bravest and strongest Castell in all the countrie[.] Then there is AUBIGNY, CONCOURSANT called in Latin, Concordia saltus. ANGILLON and AIGNAN there where there is most traffick of Marchandise, LEUROUX & Vastan. These be all the Cities in the Countrie of BERRY LIMAINE. This region is a parte of the Countrie of Averna, but not all, it is the best and most fruitfull parte watred with the river ALLIER, a very delectable and pleasant countrie, full of forrests fountaines, hott baths, mynes of silver, and all kindes of fruite. The principall towne of this Countrie is called CLERMONT, wch as Belleforrest saith, is the renowned towne of GERGOVIA where Versingetorix kinge of Averna commonly kepte
112 Then there is: A literal translation of “Puys y a” (L’Epitome, 20v): this is a subjectverb agreement error in English, though the construction is not considered ungrammatical in French. 113 CHASEAU MILAN: L’Epitome has “Chasteaumeilant” (20v).
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his Courte:114 but Gabriell Simon saith it was on the side of Gergoya115 because of the auncient vines116 wch are there. I must not here bury in silence a marvelous thinge recited by Peter Belon in his observations, and by Beloforest in his Cosmographie of Munster speaking of such woonderfull waters117 wch by their naturall propertie tourne all that they touch into stone, to witt that by this towne of Clermonte upon the river Tiretaine, there is a stoane-bridge thirtie cubites of longitude, 6 of profunditie, and 8 of Latitude made of hard water wch is transformed into stoane running into a fountaine distant from the said river aboute 300 paces; in truth an admirable thinge, and a great miracle of Nature. [13v] The principalitie of ORANGE. This Countrie is an absolute principalitie, and such a one as the Prince houldeth in all soveraignitie, and noe bodie els haith any thinge to doe therin. It assumeth his name of the most famous towne of ORANGE, seated upon the river of ARGENCE which cometh out of the Countrie of Dioise. It haith in it a very high mountayne, at the toppe whereof there is an aunciente Castle where the princes of Orange were woonte to keepe their Courte This towne haith bene alwaies greatlie renowned by reason of the laudable antiquities therof, amongst the which there is a triumphante arke118 excellentlie well made, and other buildinges so high and well done that there is noe man that doth not woonder at their workemanshippe, especiallie of the theater and the greate ruines of bricks[,] & greate fair square carved stoanes that noe body that haith a good judgemente darre affirme that there was ever the like seene in Fraunce. The borders of this Principalitie be Langue doc Dolphinee, 114 commonly kepte his Courte: a stylish rendition of the original: “se tenoit coustumierement” (L’Epitome, 21v). 115 Gergoya: Here again ET omits a direction that would be helpful to map-readers. Cf. L’Epitome: “Gergoye (assis au haut de ceste Carte)” (21v). See Introduction. 116 auncient vines: a mistranslation of “vieilles ruines” (L’Epitome 21v), i.e., “old ruins.” 117 woonderfull waters: L’Epitome has “eaux alumineuses” (21v), literally “illuminating or enlightening waters” (DAF ). Shawe also has “wonderfull” (21v). 118 triumphante arke: i.e., triumphal arch. Possibly a mistranslation of L’Epitome’s “Arc triumphal” (22v), i.e., “triumphal arch.” The French “arc” can be translated as either “arc” or “arch” in English; however, the OED gives “arke” as a variant spelling of “arc” only – not of “arch.”
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and the Earldome of Venaiscin Papal lande. AVINION is the principall towne thereof. [14r] SAVOY It seemeth that the Duchie of Savoy ought to appertaine to Fraunce, because it is situated of this side the mountes Neverthelesse it is governed by a particular prince who is likewise prince of Piedmonte. The capitall towne of Savoy is called CHAMBERY, in the which they saie is the Cloth wherin Jesus Christe was wrapped when he was entombed, and for the same it was shewed the yeare 1500 at Vercelli ein Piedmonte being carried thither for the warres119 The kinge of Fraunce made upon the Duke of Savoy his landes.120 There are many good townes besydes as TARANTAISE MONSTIERS, MONBELIAL. The soile121 is of sundrie natures; in some places very fruitefull of Corne and wyne, in others barren but none soe barren that there groweth not plentie of Chesnutt trees, and greate water nuttes. There are as many Cattell as you coulde with reason wishe for, which is the cause that victualls are very good cheape there; in such short that of their plentie they maie succour their neighboures. This Duchie of Savoy haith under it the Countrie of PIEDMONDE wch /is/122 now wrested123 to a principalitie[,] and the Countrie of BRESse,124 wherin there are the Counties of VARAS, MONTREUEIL PONTE DE VAUX BAGEN, &c.
119 warres: It appears that ET has written a period and then attempted to rub it out. 120 made upon the Duke of Savoy his landes: ET adds a detail not found in L’Epitome, which has “faisoit au Duc de Savoye” (23v). She may not be interested in how map-makers locate or define a territory (see Introduction), but is clearly concerned with land as a possession and as a symbol of power. 121 soile: L’Epitome has “territoire” (23v). 122 /is/: added not above the line but in the left margin. 123 wrested: L’Epitome has “erigé” (23v). ET may have confused “eriger,” i.e., “to erect, establish, set up,” with “arracher,” i.e., “to wrest.” 124 BRESse: ET squeezes this word into the end of a line.
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[14v] LANGUEDOC & Provence This table sheweth you the Coastes of Languedoc & Provence, It is called Languedoc because wheras other Frenchmen call [yea ouy] they call it [oc], for Languedoc signifieth nothinge els but the language of [oc]125 The principall townes in this table are MARSEILES a porte of the sea builte by the greekish nation ARLES upon Rhone which haith bene a Marchantes towne as Strabo writeth. AVIGNON upon the same river, a towne both greate and and rich, at this place the Popes hertofore have helde their Synods.126 NISMES, an auncient towne whereas yet there are many antique buildinges[,] as Amphitheaters, Colosses127 and Temples. MONPELLEIRES hertofore the renowned Academy which was the most famous of all Europe for Physicke or lawes. NARBONE and many others wch the Readers may here see. In all this Countrie there is an infinite and marvelous nomber of Fruites & swete smellinge trees such as Orange trees, Citron trees, Olive trees, Pomegranat trees and figgtrees, and the fairest vynes128 that are to bee sene. As for the landes of the Countrie though they bee esteemed barren, yet they are covered with Rosemary, Mirtle Gyniper[,] Sage & Palmetrees as fruitfull as those of Affrica & Barbarie. And not longe agoe they have planted in the towne of YERES pipes of Sugar,129 and there is hope it shall not be proffitlesse, because the grounde is not unfitt for it. My witnesse is Bellforreste[.]
125 [yea ouy] … the language of [oc]: All square brackets in this passage are original to ET. L’Epitome has “les autres François disent, ouy, ils disent oc: car Langue d’oc ne signifie autre chose que Langage d’oc” (24v). ET uses square brackets as quotation marks, an improvement on the clarity of the original (except where she has omitted one). She has handled gracefully the necessity to explain “ouy” to her English readers, although her strikeouts indicate that she had difficulty deciding what to do with the letter “d,” perhaps recognizing only belatedly that “d’ ” means “of” and does not form part of the target word. 126 at this place the Popes hertofore have helde their Synods: a tactful translation of the original: “là où les Papes ont eu leur siege quelque temps” (L’Epitome, 24v). 127 Colosses: an understandable simplication of the confusingly noncommittal original: L’Epitome has “Colisées ou Colosses” (24v), i.e., “Coliseums or Colosses.” 128 vynes: L’Epitome has “le vignoble” (24v), i.e., “vineyard.” 129 pipes of Sugar: L’Epitome has “cannes à succre” (24v), i.e., “sugar cane.” See Introduction.
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[15r] The Earldome of BOURGOIgne This Earldome is divided into three Dioceces; The high, the lowe, and the meane.130 Of which the principall townes are GRAY, SALMES & DOLE. and their rivers are SOANE FORICA and DOUX. Gray upon Soane is very rich in many thinges. It haith a fruitefull soile.131 Salmes upon the river Forica is a well knowne towne because of very white salte wch they make there, & greate plentie thereof. The reason whereof is the salt fountaines wch are about it from which the name of Salmes is derived. Lowe Burgoigne hath in it also the Citie of ARBOIS soe called because of L’Epitome has “Bessançon the multitude of faire trees, wherewith it is compassed about. It is from hence we have these excellente wynes which are soe much esteemed. Dole situated upon Doux is the most renowned of all this Province for the studies of all faculties. There is also in this Countrie132 the famous and auncient towne BESSANCON133 Imperiall and Metropolitan of both Bourgoignes, situated in as pleasant & faire a seate, as any towne in the worlde beinge girte in with rich vines,134 fair and high forrests having the river of Doux wch is full of fish, which passeth through the middle thereof and uncloseth the most parte of it. And because it is in the hanging of the mountaynes135 they take it for the common grange of this Earldome, as Sicilia haith bene of Italie. The inhabitantes are knowne over all the worlde, for therre greate courage, valiante feates of armes, and the fidelitie they have shewed to their prince, asmuch in peace as daungerous warres. [followed by small graphic symbol]
130 131 132 133
the meane: L’Epitome has “la Dolaine” (25v). soile: L’Epitome has “territoire” (25v). Countrie: L’Epitome has “Comté” (25v), i.e., “Earldom.” BESSANCON: reading uncertain. ET may have originally written “BESSANEON” and then written “C” over the second “E.” L’Epitome has “Bessançon” (25v). 134 rich vines: L’Epitome has “riches costaux & vignobles” (25v), i.e., “rich slopes and vineyards.” 135 in the hanging of the mountaynes: L’Epitome has “à la cheutte des montagnes” (25v), i.e., “at the base of the mountains.”
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[15v] The Duchie of BURGUNDY This parte of the Lionnesse Gaule which heretofore the Antunois have occupied is now the Duchie of Burgundie of wch the principall towne was136 AUTUNE, but nowe is DIJON where the greate Parliamente of the Duchie is. It is situated by the river which they in their language call OIUSCH wherin there is greate store of fish. Some thinke it was builte by the Emperour Aurelian; others assure themselves it is farr more aunciente. Now it is a towne very well provided asmuch for the naturall seate thereof, as that of late it haith bene fortified with certaine very well fenced bulwarkes against the assaultes of the enymies. The towne of Bearne137 houldeth the second place. The wines of this soile are greatlie esteemed every wheare. This towne is very well builte and faire to the eie, it is made invincible by a citadell Lewes the twelfe caused to be builte there. The Channcelerye is helde in this Citie. The Monasterie of Cisternes was builte in this towne of Duke Otho the yeare 1098. in a place full of wood and water wch as it is thought obtained that name for the multitude of Cisternes which are about it; and the said monastery haith under it 1800 other Cloisters, as many of Monkes, of Nunnes. Belleforrest is my author. There followeth Autune a very aunciente towne wherin as yet is the greate ruine of a Theater. Afterward the towne of MASCON which hath bene an Earldome. CHALON a marchant towne. There are others also as Sandon, Chastillion, Flavigny, Soloigne, Moyers &c. There is a place also called Bourgoiny, from whence this region taketh his name of Burgundy[.] [16r] LORAINE The Countrie of Loraine haith138 bene a realme, & then it was divided into twoe partes: High and Low, whereof one houldeth the seate at CULLEN,139 thother at METS, and this is it which we will describe in this table. This is that Region which haith140 (w)141 the devise of
136 137 138 139 140 141
was: ET appears to have written “is” and then amended it to read “was.” Bearne: reading uncertain. L’Epitome has “Beaulne” (26v). haith: reading uncertain: could be “hath.” CULLEN: L’Epitome has “Cologne” (27v). haith: reading uncertain: could be “hath.” (w): This parenthetical insertion and the similar one of “(a)” found later in the same entry are puzzling. They have no analogues in L’Epitome.
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the armed arme with a naked sworde therin comning142 out of heaven to shewe that the Dukes of Lorraine hould of none but of god & the sworde. Under this Duchie there is contained the Earldome of Vaudemonte, Verdvuvn,143 Blamont, Demmanche, De LA March, The marquisate of Pons & others. The principall townes thereof are NANCY heade of the said Duchie, TOUL, NEUFEHASTEU144 & others the moist145 Countrie of VAUGE containeth S Nicholas towards Engervill (a) and that wch is beyonde Arden to Alemanny. BARROIS is divided from Lorraine by the river Meuse it stretcheth to Newcastell. The principall townes thereof are BARLEDUC, LA MOT, LIGNY, ARG & many others then in following Meuse there is COMMERCY and VAAU COLOUR wch is halfe Fraunce and Barrois. [16v] CALAIS & BOULOgne. This Mapp reprasenteth the Coaste of the sea whic the English men have alwaies held in Fraunce in firme land till the yeare 1557 that the Duke of Guise seazed thereof in the name of the kinge of Fraunce by force of armes. It was the towne of CALAIS GUINES & ARDRES which the English men continuallie furnished with garrison. At Callais there was the staple146 of wool, but nowe it is carried to Bruges where it is yet from whence commonly they passe the sea into England147 which is /i/n no place nerer French land, in such sorte that ye distance of sea betweene Callais & the nearest parte of Englan:148 named Dover, is
142 comning: reading uncertain. ET may have written “commng” and then dotted the final minim of the second “m.” 143 Verdvuvn: reading uncertain, partly because of the early modern practice of using the letterform “v” where we might use “u” and vice versa. L’Epitome has “Verdun” (27v). “Verdvuvn” in this case transcribes ET ’s spelling unregularized. (See Note on the Text.) 144 NEUFEHASTEU: L’Epitome has “Neufchastel” (27v). Although ET ’s orthography is puzzling, in this case it is very clear. 145 moist: L’Epitome has “moiteux” (27v), i.e., “humid.” 146 staple: a town or group of merchants which has “the exclusive right of purchase of certain classes of goods destined for export” or which is “the principal market … for some particular class of merchandise” (OED). 147 ET ’s text breaks in the middle of the line here and starts a new line with the next word. 148 Englan: ET appears to have run out of room at the end of a line and so did not complete the word. The colon in this case signals her abbreviation.
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but 7 French miles or 30 of ours.149 This towne haith bene called Iccius Portus according to the opynion of many for some thinke it haith bene the towne of Bouloigne because it is in equall distance from Dover with Callais. But that shalbe Gessoriacus Portus150 as Rhenanus sheweth by an aunciente Mappe manuscripte.151 There is high Boulogne and lowe as you maye see. High Bouloigne is a strong towne girt in with high walles and deep diches. Lowe Bouloigne is an Italian mile from thence descendinge upon the sea. This was but a village the yeare 1544 before it was beseiged by the English men. There is a Church of St Nicholas,152 and a cloister of Friers. Not farr from thence by the sea there is an aunciente towre builte with stones which the inhabitants saye was builte by the commaundemente of Julius Cæsar The Frenchmen call it the towre of order:153 but the English men name it the Olde man. [followed by small graphic symbol] [17r ] VERMANDOIS The inhabitants of this Countrie have bene called Veromandui The Capitall towne of this Countrie is S. QUINTINE situate upon Somme: 149 but 7 French miles or 30 of ours: Cf. L’Epitome: “n’est que trente lieuës Angloises, ou sept de nostres” (28v). ET reverses the order to maintain the syntactical structure. She often, as here, translates “lieuë” as “mile”: a more familiar term, but not really equivalent. The league was considered in England to be the equivalent of three miles, but was more variable on the Continent. 150 This towne haith bene called Iccius Portus … Gessoriacus Portus: Some ambiguous pronouns render the sense of this passage obscure. The French pronouns in L’Epitome are equally ambiguous. Shawe’s description is much clearer: “Calles was some tymes called Portus Iccius, although some holde that it was Bulloine that was called so, beeinge the distance from thence to Dover almost equall with Callaix. But Rhenano writes that Bulloyne was called Gessoriacus Portus” (28v). 151 an aunciente Mappe manuscripte: ET omits some details from the end of this sentence. Cf. L’Epitome: “une Carte fort antique, escripte & faicte à la main” (28v). 152 There is a Church of St Nicholas: The Church of St Nicholas had been very important to the English, but it was completely destroyed during the loss of Calais in 1557. ET may not have known that her source was inaccurate on this point, although Sir Henry Lee probably did know it. Shawe repeats the error in 1603, saying that Calais “hath a faire churche, dedicated to S. Nicolas” (28v). 153 The Frenchmen call it the towre of order: a straight translation of the French: “Les François l’appellent la Tour d’Ordre” (L’Epitome, 28v).
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wch kinge Philippe tooke by force and not wthout greate discomfiture of the Frenchmen the yeare 1557. But not long after peace being establisshed it was restored againe, and wth it han[.]154 & Chastelett wch weare taken at the same tyme. This towne of St Quintine haith bene called Augusta Veromanduorum as Jacobus Marchantius writeth. But Robert Cenalis saith Augusta is noe more tobe seene. But now there is in the place thereof an Abbey 2 legues from St Quintine named VERMANDY Abbye and it haith bene a Byss/h/oprick. But the seate thereof was carryed to NOYON by the Byshope of S Medard the 14 in number of the Vermandois Byshopes the yeare 524 when the Vandals came into Fraunce. In this place is the springe of twoe famous rivers, SOME and ESCAULTE which beginne not farr of from th’other. [17v] PICARDY This region is a parte of the Belgicke Gaule wch haith bene inhabited by those of Amiens, Beauvois, & Vermandois. Somme watreth all this Countrie, fructifieth growndes wherby the towne haith plentie of provision. It is so rich of Corne155 that commonly they call /it/ the grange of Paris. They make noe wyne which many attribute raither to idlenes156 incidente to the inhabitantes, then to the sterilitie of the grounde[.]157 The principall townes are AMIENS renowned for the episcopal seate, & the antiquitie thereof, beinge aswell provided for as any towne in Fraunce[.] ABBIVILLE wch is the Capitall towne of the Earldome of PONTHIEU, the which Eardome haith his dominacion158 of the multitude and greate company of bridges that are there, for it is full of pooles and standinge waters soe that without bridges they cannot 154 han: the name of a town: L’Epitome has “Han” (29v). 155 Corne: L’Epitome has “froument,” i.e., “wheat” (30v). ET renders this French term as “corne” in “The Bishopricke of LIEGE” as well (19r). Up to this point she has used “corne” to translate “bled,” a more generic term than “froument.” Burford’s economy did not depend on grain farming, and ET may have had little interest in distinguishing between different regions’ grain crops. See note 208. 156 idlenes: L’Epitome has “nonchalance” (30v). 157 then to the sterilitie of the grounde: ET omits a phase here. L’Epitome has “qu’à la faute de la terre, ou inclemence de l’air” (30v). 158 his dominacion: a mistranslation of “la denomination” (30v). The French text is explaining that the Earldom gets its name (Ponthieu) from the many bridges (ponts) that are there.
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goe. There159 St Quintine in Vermandois[,] where all the Earles of this Region weare woonte to keepe Courte. PERONEA, well knowne about all the worlde for the continuall warrs it haith sustained; GUISE (of which the familie of the Guiseians keepes ye name) is a stronge place. Thothers are of lesse importance. Pycardy according to a french author was woont to be divided into thre partes, the High, the Lowe, and trewe Picardy[.] which haith in it VERMANDOIS, RITELOIS, TARTENOIS and TYRASSE [18r] ALEMANY There is no Countrie in all Christendome that haith more grouud contained under one man160 then Almany, for it containeth FLANDERS, BRABANTE, ZELANDE, HOLLANDE, FRISELand161 DENMARK, MAKELBOURGE, POMERAN, PRUSSIA the ould and newe MARCH, SAXONY, WESTPHALIA, GUILDERLAND, CLEEVE, JULIERS The Archbiss/h/op of CULLEINE, HESSEN, DURINGE, MISSE, LAUSNIZ, SLESIA, METHERIR BOHEMIA (though they speake not Alman) FRANCONIA. The Archbyss/h/opricke of MAYENCE LUTZENBOURGE, The Archbysshoprick of TRIEVES, The Countrie of Count PALATINE, ELSAT, WITTENBERGE, SWABE BAVIERE, AUSRICH, STIETMARI, CARINT, TRIOL SWETHLAND.162 And for the Countrie it is reverenced by ye title of the Romane Empire, and it is fruitfull & aboundant in all thinges. It /is/ watred by the most famous and navigable rivers of all Europe, to witt RHINE[,] ELBE[,] and DANUBIA it haith many populous and aunciente163 townes therin. There is noe Countrie richer then it in mynes of gould, silver, brasse Iron, Tynn, leade, and it furnisheth all other 159 There: There is a mark after the word above the line: ET may have contemplated inserting a word or letters to clarify her sentence. L’Epitome has “En apres” (30v). 160 under one man: L’Epitome has “sous un nom” (31v), i.e., “under one name.” 161 FRISELand: ET has squeezed the word into the end of a line. L’Epitome has “Frise” (31v). See note 16 and Introduction. 162 TRIOL SWETHLAND: L’Epitome has “Tirol, Suisse [Switzerland], &c.” (31v). ET ’s names for Sweden and Switzerland do not distinguish between the two lands. See notes 244, 314, and 442; see also Introduction. 163 populous and aunciente: not a literal translation. L’Epitome has “bien peuplees & magnificques” (31v).
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Countries wth Amber. The inhabitants commonly are high of stature, stronge, bourly,164 loyall, and not fainteharted, very curious workemen and inventers of many Artes, as of Printinge[,] Artillerie, Clockes; and they be very valiant in warrs, aswell on foote as on horseback[.] They keepe alsoe[,] though some saie otherwyse greate hospitalitie[.] They will lodge both strayngers and freindes most willinglie. But since there is no nation but haith a synne, these are too much given to drinke. And though auncientlie th’other nations have passed boundes in that vice, and the greekes and the Romanes make mencyon in their histories of greate Dronkardes, yet the Almans beare the price165 above all. It weare well truly if they would leave it for it is the roote of all evill and synne.166 [18v] The Lowe Countries [final letter extended into a fairly elaborate flourish] This table containeth but 17 provinces wch th’Emperour Charles of good memorie gave to his sonne king Philippe of Spaine, namely the Duchie of BRABANTE, GUILDERLAND LIMBOURGE and LUXIMBOURGE[,] The Earldom of FLAUNDERS, ARTOIS, HENAULE[,] HOLLANDE[,] ZELANDE, NAMURE & ZUTPHEN[.] The Marquisate of the holy Empire the Lordshippes of FRISELANDE,167 MALINS, VIRUKE,168 OVERISSIL and GROININGE, which Countries are all well inhabited in such sorte that Lewes Guicciardine in his perticular description of the Low Countries that there are 208 and 8169 walled townes compassed with ditches and more then 6300 villages wch have churches and Parishes, besides Castles and greate lords houses170 of which there is an infinite multitude. 164 stronge, bourly: ET ’s vivid translation of “robustes de corps” (L’Epitome, 31v). 165 price: a variant spelling of “prize” (OED). L’Epitome has “les Alemans emportent la victoire” (31v). 166 all evill and synne: L’Epitome has “tous maux” (31v), i.e. “all evils.” ET ’s earlier use of “synne” in this description translates “vice” (31v). ET ’s choices here introduce a specifically religious discourse not found in the French. 167 FRISELANDE: L’Epitome has “Frise” (32v). See note 16 and Introduction. 168 VIRUKE: L’Epitome has “Utrecht” (32v). 169 208 and 8: an error. L’Epitome has “deux cents & huit [208]” (32v). 170 Castles and greate lords houses: ET omits “fortresses” from her translation of “Chasteaux, Forteresses, & maisons des grands Seigneurs” (32v). See note 187 and Introduction.
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Strangers as Spaniards, Italians & French men call the countrie of one common name Flaunders, and the Inhabitants Flemmings; in which they committ a greate errour, taking a part for the whole, for Flaunders is but a parte of all this Countrie. Even as one meaning Spaine should name Castilia or Andalusia, or if one Speakinge of all Italy should name Tuscaine or Lombardie likewise if one reading of Normandy or Gascony should thinke he hard of all the Realme of Fraunce. This errour Ortelius, a wyse man and very curiouse in such searches[,] saith haith bene bredd by the traffick of the low c/o/untries[,] which is done at Bruges, and noe where els in all this Countrie soe that this towne only causeth the frequentacion of strange nations, and this towne beinge seated in Flaunders, all comes from Flaunders, all goes to Flaunders, & hearing no other bruite but Flaunders, they thought the name of all the Countrie to be soe. [19r] The Bishopricke of LIEGE . The soile appertaininge to the state or Bishoprick of Leige is very pleasaunte, fruitfull, and fitt for corne and all other sortes of seedes, and all kinde of fruites. The aire is temperate, soe that in all the Countries thereabouts171 there growe grapes but not manye, As for flesh, fish, venison, and all sortes of wyne172 there is greate plentie and of an excellente taste. For mynes of Iron there are sufficiente, and some of leade,173 yea a fewe of gould which is very faire and good. Likewise there are mountaines of square carved stoanes,174 as Alab/r/aster peckled
171 in all the Countries thereabouts: a neatly compressed but slightly inaccurate rendition of the original: “presque par tout ce païs & contrées plus voisines” (L’Epitome, 33v). 172 wyne: a mistranslation: L’Epitome has “gibier” (game) (33v). 173 and some of leade: ET omits a phrase here. L’Epitome has “& quelques unes de plomb [lead], voire des veines de soulphre, & aucunes de peu d’or [gold]” (33v). 174 square carved stoanes: a mistranslation of “pierres de taille”: stones good for carving, not stones already carved into square shapes (L’Epitome, 33v). See note 109.
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with blacke, and Marble of all Coloures likewise a kinde of Black stoane good to bourne which they call Houill,175 the propertie of which we will set downe in the description of Namur. This stone was straunglie found out by176 LIEGE the yeare of grace 1198, it is with marvelous and excelinge laboure,177 not without perill of their lives that worke it for the admirable depth of those pitts that are under grounde, but ye greate proffitt thereof recompenceth all. Also there is much of good Saltpeter. The principall towne is LIEGE, a greate towne very large, and it haith a marvelous seate being situate in a most pleasant valley girt in with mountaines upon the river Meuse wch comes within it178 in twoe braunches and makes many little Ilands inhabited likewyse, there runnes into it many other cleare waters, soe that every where there are fair and fresh cleare fountaines, and such a company179 that many houses have ech of them twoe or thre, wch truly is most excellent pleasant & profitable.
175 Houill: i.e., coal; L’Epitome has “houille” (33v), which means “coal,” not “oil” (LMF ), although the modern French term for coal is “charbon.” “Houill” is not an English term at all (OED), so ET seems to have been unable to translate the French here. 176 by: i.e., near, close to: L’Epitome has “aupres du” (33v). 177 it is with marvelous and excelinge laboure: ET omits the verb here, and not without reason. L’Epitome has “& se fouit & cave avecques merveilleuse facherie & travail excessif” (33v): a difficult passage to make sense of since the use of “cave” as a verb is archaic. A rough translation may be, “it is searched out and excavated with marvelous skill and excelling labour.” 178 girt in with mountaines upon the river Meuse wch comes within it: L’Epitome has “ceinte de costaux & montagnes sur la Meuse: Laquelle y entre dedans … ” (33v). ET loses some clarity with her punctuation. 179 and such a company: L’Epitome has “& en telle abondance” (33v).
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[19v]180 LUCEMBOURGE This province haith bene an Ea/r/ldome, but nowe it is erected into a Duchie181 which beginneth182 to be navigable: a greate towne strong with walles and ditches. MONS is upon a river called Trouille almoste in the middle of Henaulte, very stronge and well munitioned againste the assaulte of the enymye. The Citizens are rich & they make greate Traffick of say,183 of which kinde of Cloth there is greate plentie woven. There is also among many others Bavois in the market place of whiche there is a pillar of stone under ye which as the Citizens saie there beginnes all the wayes which goe to all the principall townes of Fraunce. Wch wayes are said to be made by the commaundemente of Brunehauste and by his dispences wherby they are called Brunehausts Wayes. but nowe there very fewe lefte and the rest ruinated. It is a rich region in wines, leade,184 white and blewe stones, and marble of many coloures.185 About Brabancon there is glasse made of which they make glasse windowes, and the most excellente that maye be founde[.] There are made also all kinde of glasse vessells. 180 On this page we find the most obvious error of the manuscript: midway through translating the first sentence of L’Epitome’s “Lucembourg” (34v), ET switches to translating the next map description in L’Epitome, that of “Haynault” (35v). So she has omitted nearly all of “Lucembourg” and included most of “Haynault,” although from just reading her titles we would conclude the reverse. Perhaps she was distracted in mid-task and did not notice or remember turning the page. See Appendix C for complete transcriptions of the French descriptions of both “Lucembourg” and “Haynault.” See also Introduction. 181 Duchie: With this word ends ET ’s translation of L’Epitome’s description of “Lucembourg.” See note 180. 182 which beginneth: Here ET is translating L’Epitome’s description of the river Trouille and the town of Mons. She begins translating at a point more than one-third down the page describing “Haynault” (35v). The text omitted from the beginning of this map description is about 100 words long in the original French. See note 180 and Appendix C. 183 say: “A cloth of fine texture resembling serge; in the 16th c. sometimes partly of silk, subsequently entirely of wool” (OED). 184 It is a rich region in wines, leade: There is no mention of wine or grapes in L’Epitome: “C’est une region riche en mines de plomb” (35v). 185 marble of many coloures: ET omits details found in the original. L’Epitome lists quick lime and coal as well as marble: “marbres de diverses couleurs, chaux vive, & de la houille, dont on use en lieu de bois pour se chauffer” (35v).
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[20r] ARTOIS This Countrie or Earldome of Artois on the Southside is bordered with LISE, and Newcliff, which parteth it from Flaunders, Picardy is Southwarde from it towarde Dorlens. Fraunce bordereth upon it Eastward with Cambersi, and Boulonnois westwarde[.] The soile of this Countrie is very good, the aire healthfull, and the grownde fruitefull, but not of wyne for they have it oute of Fraunce.186 There are many good townes of wch the principall is ARRAS from whence the Countrie deriveth his name, & the most renowned St OMER which long agoe was called Sithieu. Likewise this Province haith many monasteries and amongst them 28 Abbeyes of which the most worthie are S VAAST of Arras, S BERTIN at St. Omer, St. SAVIOUR at Anchin, And of the mounte St ELOYE[.] Alsoe there are many rivers of wch these are the most knowne as LYS, ESCARPE, HAA CHAUCH, ANTHY and other navigable rivers which runne into the Ocean sea. The nomber of the Forrests,187 villages and suburbes Thereof is very greate. There are alsoe greate woods and Forrests, but especiallie on South & Westside. [20v] NAMUR This Countrie of Namur haith the title of an Earldome and it haith the neigbourhoode of Leige, Brabante Hanuit, & Lucembourge. It is watred by Meuse and Samber. Very fair navigable rivers. The gentlemen take greate delite and pleasure in huntinge in the forrests especiallie in Marlaigne Wood wch is the greatest,188 the countrie is neither mountainous, nor champion,189 but it haith here and there little hills & 186 they have it oute of Fraunce: ET omits a comment on the relationship between Artois and France which L’Epitome adds at this point. Cf. “qu’ils recouvrent de France, pour en estre plus voisins de terroir qu’ils ne sont de cœur” (36v). 187 Forrests: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “forteresses” (36v), a word ET surprisingly has difficulty translating elsewhere as well. See note 170 and Introduction. 188 The gentlemen … is the greatest: ET has reversed the order of two sentences. L’Epitome describes the landscape (in one sentence which ET translates here as “the countrie … haith … little hills & valleys”) before telling how “Les forests … donnent belle chasse” (37v). It is difficult to know whether this is a stylistic choice or the result of an accidental omission caught in time. 189 nor champion: i.e., nor flat (“ny du tout plat” in L’Epitome, 37v. “Champion” is a variant spelling of “champian,” an “expanse of level open country” (OED).
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valleys. It is a very fruitefull Countrie for all necessary thinges for mans life There are many mines of Iron, and greate plentie of houille wch some call leige coales,190 and it is a kinde of coaly stoane, or stoany coale[,]191 and of a marvelous nature; for, whereas other Coales moystened much with oyle kindle and bourne the better these when you touch them with oile will not bourne but quenche, but when they are moistened wth water they will bourne. These Coales have a verie stronge smell, but if you throue a little salte upon them it wilbe mittigated. The inhabitants and alsoe those that dwell in the neigbour regions to whom they send many Coales use greate fire in their houses The Brasiers and Smiths use them at their nede. There are mynes of marble, and other stoanes of many coloures of wch they gather riches. In this Earldom there are 4 fortified townes192 to witt Namur the principall towne and it haith a Byshop BOVINES, CHARLEMOUNTE & WALCOURTE. The people are experte in warrs and obedient to their prince[.] [21r] BRABANTE[.] The Countrie of Brabante is watred and almost environed with these rivers MEUSE, SAMBER, DENTE, ESCAULTE, & soe that it stretcheth not beyond these rivers and not fullie soe farr, for the Byshope of Liege haith a greate parte of that side of Meuse. It is a pleasaunt & delectable Countrie for the aire is holesome and good[,] & the inhabitantes are of a chearefull, merry disposition. it maketh them growe soe olde This Duchie of Brabante containeth in it the Marquisate of Empire193 of wch ANWARPE is the principall towne, the Marquisate of Barques, the Duchie of Arshscot, the Countie of Hoochstraite and Meguen. And under the Jurisdiction thereof there are other Countries beyonde the river Meuse, it is beautified194 by manie195 forrests and 190 leige coales: L’Epitome has “charbons de Liege” (37v). 191 a kinde of coaly stoane, or stoany coale: L’Epitome has only “une sorte de pierre charbonneuse” (37v). 192 4 fortified townes: ET omits details found in the original. Cf. “quatre [4] villes fortifiées & ceintes de belles murailles” (L’Epitome, 37v). 193 the Marquisate of Empire: L’Epitome has “le Marquisat du S. Empire” (38v). 194 beautified: ET appears to have amended this word, writing the “ied” over something else, but the original letters cannot be distinguished. 195 manie: ET appears to have first written “maine” and then amended it to read “manie.”
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Parkes, whereof one is Senia wch is five miles in compasse and contayneth many villages and Cloisters. The principall townes are ANWARPE196 sited upon Escaute, which is a marchante towne, and it passeth not only all the townes of Allmany but of all Europe.197 BRUSSELLS a pleasaunte towne and full of running water, it is ye Courte of the Duchie Lonayge,198 it is a towne soe greate that there are inclosed in it many earable feildes, Meadowes & vines. BOIS-LE DEUE wherin there is a very faire Clocke of woode[.]199 [followed by a small graphic symbol] [21v] Flaunders. Flaunders is accompted for the best Countrie in Christendome. For it Containeth 28 townes environed with walls, and 114200 villages. It is divided into three partes, wch are[,] the Flemish Flaunders, the French Flaunders, and the Imperiall Flaunders.201 In the French Flaunders there is LILLA[,] surnamed litle Antwerpe; and in the Flemmish parte is GAUNT the capitall towne of all this Countrie, wch is esteemed the Principall towne of Christendome it haith in compasse 3 leagues. Within the walls there are thre rivers gathered together; to witt, Escaute, Live and Luz which divide it into 20 Isles, wch are rejoyned by 98 bridges There is greate Traffick alsoe. It is well peopled, and of a very strong situacion; yea impregnable because of a Castell wch the Emperour Charles who was borne in this towne, builte in this towne the yeare 1540.
196 ANWARPE: Antwerp was Ortelius’s home, and the town in which L’Epitome was printed. 197 but of all Europe: In L’Epitome there follows a detailed and admiring description of Antwerp, which ET entirely omits. See Introduction for a transcription of the untranslated original. 198 Lonayge: L’Epitome has “Louvain ” (38v). 199 BRUSSELLS … Clocke of woode: ET omits several details from the descriptions of both “Bruxelles” and “Boisleduc ” found in L’Epitome (38v). 200 114: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “mille, cent & quatre [1104]” (39v). See Introduction. 201 the Imperiall Flaunders: At this point L’Epitome adds a brief discussion of why “Flandre Imperiale” is considered “la vraye Flandre,” which ET omits: “… Flandre Imperiale; laquelle de plusieurs est dicte la vraye Flandre, pour n’avoir oncques eu autre Superieur que le Comte de Flandres” (39v).
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There are lions alwaies nourished, wch breede there sometymes.202 It is a good rich and fruitefull Countrie, and full of pastures especiallie The west quarter breedeth much Cattell and good horses, very fitt for the warrs service. There is plentie of butter and Cheese: and greate store of very good corne. Almost all /the/ inhabitantes exercise themselves in marchandize[.] They make Cloth of a greate quantitie of good wooll203 wch groweth there and likewise of the wooll wch commeth thither out of Spaine or Englande[.] [followed by small graphic symbol] [22r] The Countrie of GUELDERlande Heretofore the Sicamber (as all authors write) have inhabited this204 Countrie of Gelde/r/land,205 and the sea called Zwiderzee bordereth it Northwarde, South and Easte. And the Country of Brabant West.206 A plaine and united207 Countrie with many Pastures and mountaines, yett there are here and there some little Forrests & Woods. There is plentie of all thinges especiallie in Corne Wheate and Barlye208 & very fitt because of the flourishinge grene meadowes to nourish many beastes wch are sent from the extremities of the Countrie of Denmarke to be fatted there. Soe that here in Anwarpe we have sene a beefe that came out of
202 There are lions alwaies nourished, wch breede there sometymes: L’Epitome has “Elle a tousiours nourri des lions, qui aussi y ont faict aucunefois des petits” (39v). 203 good wooll: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “bon lin,” or “good flax” (linen) (39v). ET may have taken “lin” to be a variant spelling of “laine” (wool). 204 this: ET may have written “the” originally and then written “is” over the “e” to amend it. 205 Gelde/r/land: ET appears to have begun writing “Friseland” but realized her error part way through; “Geld” is written over the letters “Fris.” 206 the sea called Zwiderzee bordereth it Northwarde, South and Easte. And the Country of Brabant West: a very inaccurate compression of the original, which reads as follows: “ayant le païs de Phrise & la Mer appellée Zuyderzee vers le Nort, le païs de Juliers luy sert de liziere vers le Midy & Orient, & le païs de Brabant & Hollande vers l’Occident” (L’Epitome, 40v). 207 plaine and united: “plain & uni” in L’Epitome (40v). “Plaine” means “flat, open” (HCR); the adjective had this sense in English as well in the sixteenth century (OED); however, “uni” in this context probably means “smooth” or “even” (HCR). 208 Corne Wheate and Barlye: L’Epitome has “grains & frouments” (40v). See note 155.
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that Countrie the yeare 1570 wch wayed 3200 poundes. This Countrie is watered wth thre famous rivers to witt RHIN WALE & MEUSE. That Country wch is called Velewe is in this Countrie it is an Ile situate betweene the sea called Zuiderzee, Issell Rhin and the river Vashte. It is a barren place. Within it are little mountaines and Trees. Some affirme that the people called Canine fates have dwelt in this Country. There are in Guilderlande 22 cities environed with walls and above 300 Townes. MIMEGUE is the Capitall Citie, wch (with that, that is about it under the Jurisdiction thereof) is called the Empire of Mimegue. This Countrie of Guild: prospered well in the tyme of Earle Otho the 3. Rurenamed, Harderwick,209 Bommel, Gosh, and Wageninge which in his tyme weare but townes,210 and weare by him environed wth walls and he gave them greate privileiges. It was but an Earldom till the tyme of Reinhoode the 2. but Reinhoode by his poure and valeure began to be redoubted. The name of good Justicer was attributed unto him: soe that every one knewe the faithfull service he did to the Romaine Empire[.] The Emperoure Lewes in an assemblie held at Frankforth the yeare 1339 in the præsence of the Kinge of England, the K: of Fraunce, and the prince Electors gave him the title of a Duke. The inhabitantes of this Countrie have alwaies bene reputed good souldiours. The Earldome of ZUTPHEN situat in the Frontires of this Country with the townes of HERCULENS and M NEUTENS211 in the Countrie of JULIERS, are appertaining to Guilderlande.212 [22v] ZELANDE[.] Zeland containeth under it all the Iles situate betweene Flaunders Brabante, Holland, and the Sea. There are seaven which be counted principall, to witt WALCHERE[,] SVITBEVERLANDE, NORTHBEVEVERLANDE,213 WOLFERDIJCK, SHWIVE 209 Rurenamed, Harderwick: reading uncertain. ET appears to have begun writing “surenamed” and then written “R” over the “s.” L’Epitome has “Ruremonde, Arnhem, Harderwijck” (40v). 210 townes: L’Epitome has “villages” (40v). 211 M NEUTENS: L’Epitome has “Nieustat” (40v). 212 are appertaining to Guilderlande: somewhat of a simplification. Cf. “appertiennent semblablement & sont resortissantes sous le païs de Gueldres” (L’Epitome, 40v). 213 NORTHBEVEVERLANDE: L’Epitome has “Nordbeverlant” (41v).
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DUVELANTE and TOLE. These seaven with certaine others of lesse importance alltogether make an Earldome[,] which haith in it eight walled townes, others not walled, and 100 villages214 of which the Capitall is called MIDELBOURGE in Walchere which haith the staple215 of all the wines which come to us from Spaine, Portingale & Fraunce Nott farr from thence is VLISSINGE a renowned towne because of his haven. These Iles are soe subjecte to the inconstancie of the sea216 that though nowe it be written by credible authors it will hardlie be beleeved hereafter: for sometymes the Sea passing through the middle of one of the saide Iles it maketh twooe; other tymes of twoe it maketh one by breakinge some sandye banke in twoo217 And sometimes it falleth out that they take muche Fish where they weare woonte to kill Venison. They are fruitefull enough soe that the Corne which commeth from thence is esteemed best and an Acre218 of grownde there beareth more then twoe in the Country of Brabant. But there is no fresh water /nor/ good aire & little wood in leiu of which they bourne Torves.219 There groweth such store of Mader,220 that they furnish almost all Europe therewith. The inhabitantes almoste are all marriners and Fishermen. In the which trade they use soe greate diligence that they furnish not [23r] not onlie us but alsoe England wth Fish. There is great Trafficke of Salt also which they bringe from Spaine Portugall & Fraunce. Soe that the wheate and other good kindes of Corne madder, Fish and Salte make 214 100 villages: a mistranslation: L’Epitome has “cent & deux [102] villages” (41v). 215 staple: see note 146. 216 subjecte to the inconstancie of the sea: A slight compression of the original. Cf. “subjectes à la tempeste & inconstance de la Mer” (L’Epitome, 41v). 217 breakinge some sandye banke in twoo: not a clear explanation of how the sea could make one island of two. Cf. “par quelque banc sablonneux qu’elle y jette entre deux” (L’Epitome, 41v), which roughly translates as “by a sandbank that it (the sea) hurls up between two.” 218 Acre: reading uncertain: could be “Acer.” 219 Torves: pieces of sod. L’Epitome has “mottes” (41v). “Torve” is an early modern variant spelling of “turf” (OED). 220 Mader: variant spelling of “madder”: a plant cultivated for “the reddish-purple dye obtained from the root” (OED).
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the inhabitants very rich by the greate gaine which they make of it. for they are marvelous diligente & carefull to gett their livinge. They are very providente & wittie. they will not easylie be cousened nor abused with fair wordes or flatterye[.] [followed by small graphic symbol] HOLLANDE. This Countrie haith bene knowne by the name of BATAVIA It is almost an Ile compassed with sea or rivers: and more then soe there are within the Countrie many Lakes and Pooles & ditches made with mens handes so that there is almost noe towne or village where one cannot goe and come aswell by water as by lande. It is soe little that there is no place from which one may not goe to the Seacoste in 3 houres; and yet it containeth in it 29 walled townes (of which the principall are AMSTELREDAM, a very rich towne because of the greate Traffick which is made there: and DORDRECHT[,] which haith the staple221 of Renish wines) and more then 400 villages of wch one is called GRAVENHAGE a place where the Councell of Holland is helde[,] it is the best village of all Europe for it wanteth but walls to make it a faire Citie but the inhabitants will not wall it for they saie it /is/ better to be the [23v] the best of all villages222 then the second of all townes. To conclude they223 thinke that over all the worlde there is no countrie so little that containeth soe many townes, nor soe poore and soe full of riches: for naturally there is plentie of nothing but of fish and Flesh. Of it selfe it haith neither wyne, Corne, nor woodd; and yet it furnisheth all the Low Countries by the celeritie, dexteritie and promptitude of
221 staple: See note 146. 222 they saie it /is/ better to be the the best of all villages: Other than her repetition of “the,” ET has crafted here a tight and lively rendition of the French. Cf. the relatively indirect original: “aimants plustost qu’il soit estimé le premier de tous les villages” (42v). The word “the” occurs at the bottom of fol. 22v and again at the top of fol. 23r, so its repetition may be deliberate, although this is by no means a strategy ET regularly uses. See note 230. 223 they: not the inhabitants of Gravenhage but people in general. L’Epitome has “l’on” (42v).
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good mariners224 wch seeke all aboute for such thinges[,] and by the commoditie of the good Portes of the Sea which are there. There is neither wooll nor Flaxe, yett they make soe much woollen and linnen cloath of the wooll and Flax that they have out of Scotland, Ostland and Spaine that there is almost no place in all Europe where the linnen Cloath of Holland is not known at least where they can speake,225 yea as farr as India. They speake alsoe of Hollands Butter and Chese, which they have in such plentie that it is almost incredible. The inhabitantes are wise diligent people and all make Traffick and marchandize[,] at the which the women are no lesse diligente226 then men. The Romaine Emperoures had it in greate estimation asmuch for their faithfull service the inhabitantes did them in all their warres as that they served to garde their bodies. [24r] FRISELANDE227 This Countrie is divided into 2 partes by the river EEMS of which one is called East-Friselande of which the Capitall town is called EMDEN which haith bene (though against their wills under the Jurisdiction of the Earles of Holland. But /it/ nowe it is governed by a perticular Earle who is called Earle of Easte-Friselande. The other is called Westfriseland and is divided into 4 States to witt VESTERGOE, OSTERGOE. SEVEWOLD, and GROENINGE though Groining be a member of it selfe under the govermente228 of this Countrie
224 the celeritie, dexteritie and promptitude of good mariners: L’Epitome has “la dexterité de ses bons mariniers” (42v). By expanding on the description found in the original ET conveys her admiration for these sailors. 225 at least where they can speake: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “ou au moins on en sçait à parler” (42v), i.e., “or at least known by reputation.” 226 diligente: Cf. “rusées & occupées” (L’Epitome, 42v). ET omits translating the more negative “rusées” (cunning, sly). See note 106. 227 FRISELANDE: L’Epitome has “Phrise” (43v). See note 16 and Introduction. 228 a member of it selfe under the govermente: should not be read as a noun phrase modified by two succeeding prepositional phrases; ET has omitted the end punctuation required to retain the sense of the original. Cf. “… un membre à part soy. Dessous le gouvernement de ce païs de Phrise appertiennent … ” (L’Epitome, 43v). Shawe better clarifies Groininge’s special status: “although indeede Groningen doe gouverne it sealfe aperte in manner of a comon wealthe” (43v).
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of Friselande there are likewyse the Countries of OVERISSELL, DRENTE and TWENTE. This Countrie of Westfriseland is a wellpeopled Countrie and alwaies it haith bene full of rich peasantes. There are no famous rivers, but there are trenches and ditches made by arte to make the water runne from one place to another,229 and to make it goe from the feildes in winter tyme for the Countrie is very watrie and boggy, soe that in winter in many places especiallie towardes the sea they cannot goe but by water. Otherwise it is a verie good Countrie for cattell from thence we have the fattest and greatest beastes of all Europe of which they distribute a greate nomber everie yeare out of their Countrie. This Countrie haith in it 13 Townes, to witt, Groininge, Dam, Leewarde, Dockcum, Franicker, Bolswardt, Slote, Harlinghe, Workum Sneeke, Ilste, Hindelope & Slavere which are all environed with walls or ditches, and they have many good privileiges. And there are 490 villages. Petrus Olivarius writeth in his commentaries upon Melam that he never sawe countrie where in soe little roome there weare so many parishes. And he [24v] And he230 saith the reason why231 there are soe many is this. Heretofore there was some contention betweene the Noble men of the Countrie for the præsidence at Churches soe that every one would be noblest and best and sitt in the highest place. This dissension havinge indured a long tyme those that had ye poure to doe it weare Counselled in every one of their perishes to build a Church by them selves and soe every one sate at the over einde232 of his Church. That is the cause ther are so many Churches. [followed by small graphic symbol]
229 to make the water runne from one place to another: L’Epitome has “pour aller & venir de l’une place à l’autre” (43v), i.e., “in order to go and come from one place to another.” The French text refers to the inhabitants of the land whose travel the waterways facilitate, not to the water itself. 230 And he: Here ET repeats the last two words from fol. 24r. See note 222. 231 And he … saith the reason why: It is hard to say why ET struck out “he hard,” since it is an accurate translation of the original: “Et l’occasion pourquoy il y en a tant, dict il avoir entendu estre ceste-cy” (43v). Perhaps she wished not to undermine the authority of her source; as the daughter of a judge she may have known that hearsay could not be considered reliable evidence. 232 the over einde: i.e., the highest end. L’Epitome has “au plushaut bout” (43v).
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WESTPHALIA The Countrie of Westphalia is not all described in this Mappe here is nothinge but the Byshopricks of Osnabourge and Munster. Albertus Crantzius saith that this Bishoprick begunne thus. Charles the greate (quoth he) builte a Cloister or monastarie in the middle of the Countrie of Saxonie (wch now is called Westphalia233 but then it was called Miningroade: the wch name was lost, and after that it was called Munster, wch signifieth Monastery. This munster not long after was erected into a byshoprick of wch the first Byshopp was a Frisian called Lndger234 After him succeded Herman wch consecrated this monasterie, and likewise the church beyond the river Aa, in the Honour of our Lady. The said Munster was soe enlarged with houses wch weare built on both sides the river, that in the einde it was maide a Citie. Wch citie and Bishopricke haith ever since helde the name of MUNSter.235 [25r] This Citie being taken by the Anabaptistes the yeare 1533. it was by them very much endamaged they hurled out the inhabitantes236 and chose a kinge amongst themselves soe that the Byshop with the helpe of the Duke of Cleve was faine to beseige them, and when he had helde the seige aboute a yeare he tooke it from the saide Anabaptistes. The Countrie is marvelous coulde; & there is neither wine nor Corne. They live of Browne breade and drink beare. The richest use sometimes but very seldome to drinke Renish wine wch they buye very deare. They are very warlike and providente in their warres.237 DITMARS. This is a little Countrie situate betwene the rivers called Elve, & Eidet. There are neither cities nor fortresses but only villages, of wch MELDROP is the principall. There are very rich peasantes of wch some 233 Westphalia: ET has omitted the closing parenthesis found in the original French. 234 Lndger: reading uncertain. L’Epitome has “Ludger” (44v). However, ET does sometimes write “n” for “u.” 235 MUNSter: ET has squeezed the word into the end of a line. 236 they hurled out the inhabitantes: L’Epitome has “ils en chasserent les habitants,” which may be rendered “they chased (or drove) the inhabitants out” (44v). See Introduction. 237 very warlike and providente in their warres: L’Epitome has “fort belliqueux & ingenieux” (44v).
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have their houses covered with brasse. Then there is HEID where every weeke there is a good faire, & the high Councell is held there by wch all sentences and pces238 are voided. There are no pnblique whores239 for to have a maide that haith lost her honor of her race or kindred is reputed for a very greate shame. This Countrie haith bene long time of it selfe wthout any superiour as the Countrie of Suethland is yet. It is a very boggie Countrie which haith bene caused by his libertie240 for it haith not much [25v] much bene endamaged by Horsemen till the yeare 1559 but then the sommer was very drie. Then Adolfe the kinge of Denmarks sonne heire apparant of the Realme of Norwaye, Duke of Sleswicke and Holsteine. with Frederick the 2 k: of Denmarke and John his brother levied souldioures and assailed the saide Countrie by force of armes. They tooke Meldroppe and all the Southren parte. Fewe daies after they passed the trenches of Tillenbruge with their armies, where the Ditmars men came from Hemingstade and mett them thinkinge to hunt them back, which as they thought weare wearie with their long travaile. But after many long skirmishes, they weare likewise241 driven awaie and the village burned. This daie there weare about 3000 Ditmars men slaine; and Duke Adolfe was hurte in this battaile[.] This fell out the 13 daie of June in the yeare aforesaid; and soe they weare reduced under the obedience of the Dukes of Hosteine. In this Countrie when it was in libertie none was punished wth death for any faulte[,] noe not for murder, 238 pces: likely an abbreviation for “processes.” L’Epitome has “toutes sentences & proces du païs” (45v). ET may have intended to add a brevigraph after the “p” (as she does elsewhere) and then forgotten (see Note on the Text). ET ’s abbreviation may also reflect her familiarity with legal discourse. 239 There are no pnblique whores: One wonders what a sheltered girl would have thought on reading that this situation was considered unusual enough to be noteworthy. Although ET has chosen to translate this part of the text in its entirety, she omits the preceding sentence, “Les habitans de ce païs sont gens grands de stature & robustes,” which she may have found either less unusual or less interesting (45v). 240 which haith bene caused by his libertie: a mistranslation. L’Epitome says of this country’s boggy nature, “ce qui a esté cause de sa liberté” (45v), i.e., “which has been the reason for its liberty.” 241 likewise: L’Epitome has “finablement,” i.e., “finally” (45v).
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but they fined for it with money to witt for Homicide 200 mrks which is 13 shillinges, 8 pence of English money[.]242 [26r] DENMARKE[.] The kingdome of Denmarke is divided into many partes and members by the Sea. on the Westside there is that parte of Almagny wch haith the fashion of fish[i].243 Towarde the North it falleth into the Sea which part is nowe called Juitland[.] Toward East it containeth in drie land a parte of the Southren Countrie wch comprehendeth the Realme of Swethland & Norwaye244 called SCONE and HALLANTE betwene these borders of drie land in the Sea now called BELT but heretofore Codamus sinus245 there are Ilandes of wch the principall is called Zeland of whom it is said our Zeland men have taken their names. Now, these twoe partes with the Iles in the middle make the Realme of Denmarke. There are many good townes wch are enriched by taking hearinges,246 but the principall where commonly the kinge keepeth his Courte is COPPENHAHEVE or raither Coopemans haven wch is they saie the marchantes Haven. Ther is in the saide Iland Zeland247 a very delectable place it standeth in the Sea called Zonte[.] There is also ROFEILD a byshoprick where all the kinges of Denmarke are entombed. Then there is EVINE in the wch is the Byshoprick of Oderse with many other little Ilandes wch you may see heare in this table. Under this Realme of Denmark there appertaineth Norwaie (as Marcus Jordanus saith in the
242 which is 13 shillinges, 8 pence of English money: Instead of a literal translation here, ET converts the figure given to the currency used by her readers. L’Epitome has “un marc vaut seize patars de Brabant” (45v). See Introduction. 243 fish[i]: L’Epitome has “poing” (46v), i.e., “fist.” See Introduction. 244 wch comprehendeth the Realme of Swethland & Norwaye: The equivalent passage in L’Epitome is in parentheses. “Swethland” in this case refers not to Switzerland but to Sweden: L’Epitome has “le royaume de Suesse” (46v). See notes 162, 314, and 442; see also Introduction. 245 now called BELT but heretofore Codamus sinus: The equivalent passage in L’Epitome is in parentheses (46v). 246 hearinges: i.e., herrings. 247 Ther is in … Zeland: i.e., Copenhagen is in Zeland. ET has broken up a lengthy sentence containing parenthetical phrases into short sentences, with some loss of coherence.
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Mapp of Denmark imprinted at Coppenhave) The Iles248 called Gotland Grunlande, Islande, Feroe, Etland. & the Orcade Ilande. Though I thinke that the Orcadyes wch have the title of Duchie appertaine to the Crowne of Scotland though they speake the Gottish and note the Scottish. It maie be they weare once under the k of Denmark therefore he beareth the title of them all still. Under249 [26v] you see likewise in this Mapp the Ile called Gotland which now appertaineth to the K of Swethlande but the kinge of Denmarke haith governed it. It is a fruitfull Ile. there are plentie of horses and beefes. There is greate hunting, good fishing, and faire mines of marble. In this Ile there is the towne of VISBUY which haith bene a marchant towne of greate renowne & very pourefull. where as yet there are sene some somptuous buildings of marble almost ruinate, which well shewe what a town it haith bene. [followed by small graphic symbol] SAXONY This Mapp containeth not all that which hath bene contained under the name of Saxony but only that which we call the Duchie of Saxony. with the Countries of DURINGE MEISSE and VOITLANDE250 of which we will saie somethinge everye one by it selfe. In the Duchie of Saxony there is MEIDEBOURGE the greate towne[.] and WITTENBOURG/U/E where the Election is. the twoe principall townes situate upon Elbe. In the Countrie of Meysse seated betweene the rivers Elbe and Sall, There are these townes MEISSE of which the Countrie taketh his name KEMNITE[,] ZWICKAU[,] ALDENBOURGE and the pleasant towne of LYPSEG in this towne there are twoe faires annually held. There are many mines of silver in this Countrie[.] During seated betwene the Countries of Meysse, Brunswick, Hesse and Francovia the Capitall towne is called ERFORTE which is esteemed one of the greatest cities of Allmany. 248 Norwaie … The Iles: L’Epitome has “Norvegue, & … les Isles” (46v). 249 Under: a very puzzling last word on fol. 26r. It does not belong to the paragraph just ended, nor does it belong to the sentence following. ET has not omitted anything from her translation at this point; the final paragraph of “DANEMARCH” in L’Epitome begins, “Vous voyez … ” (46v). 250 DURINGE MEISSE and VOITLANDE: ET has omitted one name. Cf. “Duringe, Meysse, Lausnits, & Voitlande” (L’Epitome, 47v).
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Almost through all the streetes there runneth a fair river of Argentine Christalline water.251 There is a towne also called GOTNA, from whence the beliefe is derived that the Goths have inhabited it. [27r] and in perpetuall memory thereof had builte this towne. In this Countrie there is greate traffick of woodd252 which serveth to die Cloaths for there is greate plentie of it. Voitland is a little Countrie appertaining to the Marquesse, and there are these townes CULMBACH[,] PARRIET & HOLF. In this Countrie the mountaine Filterberch described in the Palatiny of Bavaria[.] The Countrie of Lausmitts is parted into twoe; the High and ye Low and although it be seated in the Countrie of Saxony. yet it appertayneth to the Crowne of Bohema. The name of the brincipall towne is GOTLITS. The river called Spre runneth through it. All these Countries have plentie of victualls as of flech fish and breade which is very white. But there groweth either no wine or very little wherefore theire common drinke is beare. The wyne which they drinke cometh out of Francovia. The inhabitants of this Countrie are very honest people and all generallie farr more amiable, kinde, freindlie & courteous in their speech couversacion and frequentacion253 then those Almayne which dwell higher. [27v] BRANDEBOURGE[.] The Marquisate of Brandebourge was instituted by the Emperor Henry the first. The inhabitantes of this Countrie auncientlie spoke the vandales language, or Slavon tonge before they received the Christian religion, but after they weare subdued and received the faith the Saxon Language was introducted which as yet the inhabitants use. This Countrie is divided into 2 partes, to witt, The olde and ye Newe. The 251 a fair river of Argentine Christalline water: ET elaborates considerably on her source here. L’Epitome has only “un ruisseau d’eau vive” (47v). See Introduction. 252 woodd: i.e., woad. L’Epitome has “guedde, ou pastel” (47v). 253 frequentacion: This could refer either to the people’s frequent visiting of one another, or to their sociability more generally. In both French and English the term is usually followed by a prepositional phrase: frequentation of or with someone or something. The original French here is as cryptic as ET ’s safely literal translation: “plus amiables & plus courtois en leur parler & frequentation” (47v).
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river of Albe passeth through the old, and Odere through the newe. There is another river also called Spre wch runneth through this region in the banke of which there is BERLIN seated which is the dwelling place of the princes of BRAndebourge. There is a river254 which passeth by this Countrie called Havella, which divideth the towne of Brandebourge into 2 parts The Countrie taketh his name of this towne. There is the Episcopall and judiciall seate of the Marques. It was named soe as som saie because of a certaine prince of the Francovians called Brandea wch conquered this towne of FRANCFORTE which is upon the river of Odre. The Marques Joachim built an university in this towne the yeare 1506. There are in this Cittie some faires likewise.255 HAVELBOURGE another towne is situate upon the brinke of Havila. this appertaineth to the byshopp.[followed by small graphic symbol] [28r] POMERAN The Duchie of Pomeran seated by the Baltiqee Sea is inhabited and governed by some Lordes borne in the same Countrie and it was never subject to any straingers. It is a very fruitfull Countrie in all places. It haith many Pooles and navigable lakes full of fish. There are store of feildes, Pastures, and Apples256 mountaines, woodds, Cattel, flesh, butter, hunny, wax, and all such like thinges. It is adorned and garnished with good strong & faire townes, fortrisses, suburbes, and Villages, in such sorte that there is noe place lefte vacant and unmanured, excepte Lakes and mountaines. Nature haith provided the borders of the sea with soe sure a rampire, that they feare noe inundation wch the Sea can make. The principall townes are seated upon the Coaste of the Sea (excepte some fewe in the middle of the Countrie,257 wch are STETIN[,] NEUGARD, STARGARD &c. Stetin was but a villag inhabited only by fishermen, but after it had once received the Christian faith, and VINETA was destroied and marchandize was brought in it begann to 254 There is a river: ET omits a detail here. L’Epitome has “il y a encore une quatrieme riviere” (48v), i.e., “There is yet a fourth river.” 255 likewise: L’Epitome has “aussi” (48v), i.e., “also.” 256 Pastures, and Apples: ET omits one item (which she usually translates as “corn”) from this otherwise accurately translated list. L’Epitome has “pasturages, bleds, pommes …” (49v). 257 Countrie: In L’Epitome the close parenthesis occurs after the word corresponding to this one.
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flourish, soe that it is nowe the principall towne of all this Countrie. The situacion is very plesante for it is upon the banke of the river Oder going by little and little upp hill. It is very stronge now by rampiers and walls. Likewise there is the towne of CRIPSWALD in the Duchie of Wolgaste, wch some call Barde, wch haith bene lessened by Civill warres. But in the yeare 1456 there was an universitie built, and since it haith begunne to growe to better state. JULIN heretofore haith bene one of the most renowned townes aswell in riches as in magnificent houses which have bene builte there. It was a noble marchant towne of the Wandalls but the Kinge of Denmarke made upon it. & in the eind it was reduced all to nothinge. You maie se hou time changeth all things. Now they call it wollin. STRALSUND is in the coaste of the sea,258 it hath heretofore had a prince of it selfe, to witt, the Duke of Barde. It is a towne full of people, and many marchandes. The inhabitantes259 spake once Wandalique language, but when they received Christan religion they tooke the manners of Saxony. [28v] SLESIA The Douchie of Slesia is held in fee260 from the Romane Emperour. by the Kinge of Bohemia. This Countrie containeth in latitude or bredth 3 good daies journeys, and in longitude or length 9. good daies journeys. The Realme of Poloina bordereth it both North & Easte, Southwarde the Countrie of Metherne,261 and Bohemia coasteth it Westwarde.262 It is so fruitfull and plentifull in all thinges necessarie to mans life that
258 sea: From this word until the end of the passage, ET reduces the size of her handwriting by about half, in order to fit the entire description of “Pomeran” onto one page. 259 The inhabitantes: not just those of Stralsund; L’Epitome has “Les habitants de toute la contrée” (49v). 260 in fee: i.e., in fief. 261 Metherne: likely a misreading: L’Epitome has “Merhern” (50v). The letters “t” and “r” in L’Epitome can be difficult to distinguish. 262 Southwarde the Countrie of Metherne, and Bohemia coasteth it Westwarde: ET omits details and in so doing produces an inaccurate and misleading description of the geography of the region. Cf. “vers le Midy le païs Merhern, & de Boheme luy sert de liziere: du costé d’Occident y a le païs de Lausnitz” (L’Epitome, 50v). I.e., Bohemia is to the south; Lauznitz is to the west. See Introduction.
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all meate is very seldom endeared.263 It is very pleasante, beautified with mountaines and Forrestes, watred with many rivers all wch paie their tribute264 to the river Odre wch runneth through this Countrie. There are two Duchies one at LIGNITS of which the princes are rich, puissant, and pourefull in lands and subjectes: and thother Duchie is at SWEIDNITS, but the king of Bohemia houldeth it for himselfe, and setteth a viceroy or governour over it who houldeth his Courte at JAVER and foure tymes a yeare meeteth with th’other noble men of the Countrie at Swidenitz The Capitall towne of this Countrie is called in their language PRESSAU and265 BRESSEL and in latin Vratislavia, a towne enriched with many faire houses. The river Oder runneth through it wch taketh his heade from the mountaines of Bohemia. and falleth into the Orientall or East sea, by the towne of stetin: & it seemeth unto us for the naturall situacion wch is266 good faire buildinges, and the inhabitantes thereof that it is very pleasante, and a delectable towne. Then there is Nissa in this place the Bishoprick was woonte to be, which nowe is at Preslau[,] Sweidnits, Oppel, Jedddrop267 &c. For about this Countrie there are many townes and villages, of which the inhabitants are almost all rich, soe that we have sene at Preslau (a very straung thing) that those268 that brought butter, Cheese Milke, and other fruits of the earth to sell weare attired in velvet, and chaines of gould about their neck as if they had bene gentlemen. There is not much wyne in this Countrie but enough brought from Hungarie & Metherne. Commonly they269 drink ale, of which there is a sorte called Sceps, which is soe strong that there is almoste noe wyne stronger. They speake
263 endeared: rendered costly (OED). 264 all wch paie their tribute: a concise and stylish rendition of the original French, continuing the theme (as the French does not) of service and tribute. Cf. “qui toutes se viennent lancer dans la riviere appellée Oder” (L’Epitome, 50v). 265 and: L’Epitome has “ou” (50v), i.e., “or.” 266 wch is: an insertion which obscures rather than clarifies the meaning of the original. Cf. “& nous semble bien, pour la naturellement bonne situation, beaux edifices, & habitans d’icelle, que c’est une plaisante ville” (L’Epitome, 50v). 267 Jedddrop: reading uncertain: could be “Jedeldrop.” L’Epitome has “Jegersdorp” (50v). 268 those: L’Epitome has “les censiers” (50v). 269 they: Beginning with this word, ET reduces the size of her handwriting by about half, in order to fit the rest of the description of “Slesia” onto the page.
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Almayn especially in the townes but here & there they speake Windian &270 Polonian Language. [29r] AUST/r/ICH This Countrie was in aunciente times contained under the name of Panonia superior or Noricum271 which is the farthest parte of Almany. on the Eastside, and it was woonte to be a marquisate (for marke in Almany signifieth as much as border or limite) because in this place it served for a lizer272 to the Realme of Hungaria. Since it was reduced into a Duchie,273 and finally into an Archduchie, the Dukes of which for more then the space of 200 yeares continually have bene kinges and Emperours of the Romaines[.] soe that the election seemeth almost inheritable to the noble house house of Austrich. Under the Archduchie as yett there appertaine[,] TYROL, STIERMARI[,] KERNTEN CILIA &c. Their Countrie is fruitfull of all that which appertaineth to the life of man, yea and in superfluitie soe that it nourisheth and entertaineth other neighbour regions. Furthermore, it is plentifull in salt and saffron[,] & such abundance of wyne yt the inhabitants dare not put any beare into their sellers without expresse leave. From thence this is derived. There is no Countrie /sure/274 in riches nere / to Austrich which had never /any/ peere.275 There are no mynes of goulde or silver, but though their cupiditie weare unsatiable humaine nature brought furth more then they could desier. The river Danubia runneth through it by meanes of which the Countrie is plentifull in fish amonge the which there is a kinde which they call Hawsen, that is to saie houses which 270 &: L’Epitome has “ou,” i.e., “or” (50v). 271 Panonia superior or Noricum: L’Epitome has “Pannonia Superior & Noricum” (51v). 272 lizer: a misspelling or a variant spelling (although the OED does not list it) of “lisiere” or “lizier,” obsolete term for berm or strip of territory in front of something (OED). L’Epitome has “lisiere” (51v). 273 reduced into a Duchie: ET ’s second but last mistranslation of “reduit” (L’Epitome, 51v). See notes 107 and 289. See also Introduction. 274 /sure/: inserted in the left margin, not above the line. 275 There is no Countrie /sure/ in riches nere / to Austrich which had never /any/ peere: an elegant and stylish translation of the French text’s rhyming aphorism: “Il n’est pays si riche, que la sans pair Austriche” (51v). The slash after “nere” is ET ’s own. See Introduction.
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name was givn them bycause of their exceeding greatenes which are as bigg as little Cottages. This fish haith no bones, and it is of savoure like unto larde, and uneasye for w/e/ake stomaches to disgest. The principall towne is VIENNA situate upon Danubia, much renowned for the greate resistance it made to the Turke the year 1526. This towne hath bene fortified since, at the Expences of the Empire with such stronge walls bulwarkes, rampiers, ditches and trenches that [29v] in our judgmentes now it is the strongest towne in all Amany. It is a well peopled towne of all kinde of marchantes, artificers and workmen which have garnished it with many faire houses, and enriched it with faire buildinges and temples amongst which the Church of St Steeven is the principall, which haith a very faire clocke of a marvelous height which was begunne tobe builte the yeare 1340 and atchived the yeare 1400[,] It is in altitude 101 foote and yet Stratzbourg clocke passeth it 10 foote, or, as Munster saith 94 foote.276 [30r] The Countrie of BOHEMIA[.] The Countrie of Bohemia is environed all aboute with forrests, mountaines and rockes. It is almost rounde for it containeth in length about 3 daies journey and asmuch in breadth. And though in all the Countries thereabout they speake the Almayne language, yet the Countrie of Bohemia haith a tonge by it selfe which is called the Windique or Salvon277 tonge. The soile is very fruitfull in all thinges necessary for mans life. It is watred with many rivers which all runne into the river called Elbe, which taketh her heade in this Countrie. Here
276 It is in altitude 101 foote and yet Stratzbourg clocke passeth it 10 foote, or, as Munster saith 94 foote: ET gets two numbers wrong here, although the numerals themselves do not need translating. L’Epitome has “Il a de hauteur 480. pieds, & toutesfois celuy de Straesbourg le surpasse de 16. pieds, ou bien, selon le dire de Munstere, de 94. piedz” (51v). ET seems to have been uncertain about about the equivalence of the French “pied” and the English “foot.” 277 Salvon: L’Epitome has “Esclavonique” (52v). ET may have intended “Slavon” (a rare term for the Slavonic language); the OED gives only “Slavon” and “Sclavon” as possible spellings. ET uses “Slavon” to translate “Esclavonique” in “Hungaria” (41v); see note 405.
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groweth wyne, butt very badd.278 They bringe good strong wine out of ye Countrie of Hungarie. The vulgar sorte drinke ale commonly which is soe good that it seemeth unto us unlesse it be in the lowe Countries there is noe beare to be founde of better taste. The inhabitants are great drinkers soe that if peradventure there be a vessell of Malmesey laid279 in a taverne they will never cease drinking (as Æneas Silvius writeth) till the vessall be quite emptie. The Capitall towne of this Countrie is called PRAGUE situate on both sides the river multa which by the meanes of a stonebrige of 24 arches (which beareth the prize of all the bridges that ever I sawe, as much in length and breadth as beauty to the eie) is joyned together againe. It is a very greate towne divided into 3 parts to witt, Olde, newe, and little Prague. and everie one of these partes haith a perticular senate and Jurisdiction by themselves. Little Prague is situate on the lefte side of the said river, here ordinaryly the Kinge of Bohemia keepeth his Courte upon a little Moate Harde by280 the said towne. The old and newe Prague are on the other side of the river. they are divided th’one from thother wth rampiers and ditches. from hence come the knives which we call Pragunars according to the said townes name. After the towne of Prague there is LITEMESSE in the frontiers of the Countrie of Metherne Byshopricke. Then there is CUTNA not farr from thence are there mynes of silver and many other townes and fortresses. These Bohemians are called in their own language Cechy and they call the Almaynes Nyemecke[.] [30v] The Bishoprik of SALTZBOURGE The Bishopricke of Saltbourge is the beste of the five Bisshopricks which are in the Countrie of Bavaria situate wholly betwene the mountaines.281 There ar many mines of gould and silver, brasse282 Iron Copresse, 278 very badd: L’Epitome has “gueres bon” (52v), i.e., “hardly good.” 279 laid: L’Epitome has “mis en traicte” (52v). 280 Harde by: The “H” is written over top of another letter, possibly “B.” L’Epitome has “joincte à” (52v). 281 situate wholly betwene the mountaines: This phrase describes Saltzbourg, not Bavaria: L’Epitome has a comma after “Baviere,” which makes the distinction clearer (53v). 282 brasse: L’Epitome has “cuivre,” which can mean either “brass” or “copper” (HCR). “Copper” would be the better choice here since brass, an alloy, cannot be mined. However, ET consistently chooses “brasse” with which to translate “cuivre”
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sulphur, Allome, white sparr[,]283 faire marble. By Birchtesgard and Rechenhall appertaininge under this byshopricke, there are mynes of Salte, and likewise by Saltzbourg, of which it is thought the name is derived, though some saie it is derived from the river Saltzbourge284 upon which it is situate. About it there are faire mountaines full of Prioryes. Munster writeth of the beginninge and original of this town that Julius Cæsar in this place caused a castle to be edified or builte because he would assaile the Almaynes of that side calling it castrum Juvasiense285 which is in English the castell of Succors286 to the einde that the Romaine garryson might have succoure & refuge from thence. This Castell is changed in tyme into a towne wch was called by the name of the castle Juvania, but in what tyme the name was changed he saith he knoweth not. Since that it was burned an destroied by Attila kinge of the Hunes. Afterward about the yeare 980287 it was reedified and perhapps it was then that it tooke the newe name[.] The yeare 612. There arrived into this Countrie of Bavaria St Rupert borne of royall Parentage, byshoppe of Wormes[,] and converted many unto the Christian faith and baptized in the towne of Reigenbourge Duke Teudo and all his Courte and many others traveling aboute the Countrie288 and preachinge the gospell. In the einde being come to Saltzbourge, and
283
284 285 286
287 288
throughout the manuscript, with one exception only. For this exception, see note 447. white sparr: A mistranslation of “antimoine” (53v), i.e., “antimony.” ET may not have understood the difference between antimony and white feldspar: both are whitish-coloured minerals found in crystalline forms, but their chemical compositions are quite different (OED). the river Saltzbourge: L’Epitome has “la riviere Saltz” (53v). castrum Juvasiense: L’Epitome has “Castrum Juvaviense” (53v). Shawe has “Juvavia” (53v). castell of Succors: L’Epitome has “Chasteau de secours, ou d’ayde” (53v). “Secours” is a singular noun, often translated “help,” though “succour” would be correct also (HCR). 980: reading uncertain. L’Epitome has “cinq cents huictante [580]” (53v), i.e., 580. ET ’s 9’s and her 5’s are similar, but the top loop does look closed in this case. and many others traveling aboute the Countrie: ET ’s omission of a comma here renders the passage somewhat obscure. It is St Rupert, not the “many others,” doing the travelling, according to L’Epitome: “arriva au païs de Baviere S. Rupert, … y convertit plusieurs à la foy Chrestienne, & baptiza … le Duc Teudo, & toute sa Cour, avec plusieurs autres, allant ainsi par tout le païs” (53v).
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seinge the place was fitt to builde a byshoppes seate he edified with the consente of the Duke a fair church in the honour of St Peter[,] likewise a faire Cloister of the order of St Benitt. Nott longe after the Duke made and constituted him Byshopp of this place and he kepte the seate about 44 yeares This Byshoprick since was erected into an Archbishopricke.289 [31r] The Countrie of BAVARIA. This Countrie is plentifull in all thinges (wine excepted) necessarie for mans life. The cause of which is the good situacion, for it is situate harde by the greate mountaines which divide Almany from Italy These mountaines are full of mines of silver, brasse,290 iron and salte[.] There are many thicketts which make it soe plentifull in swyne that it furnisheth a greate parte of Almany[.] There are likewise many faire rivers that derive their springes from these mountaynes, whic doe poure themselves into Danubius wch runneth through this Countrie: and also many lakes which are plentifull in fish. Betweene these rivers theire are many large feildes wch yeild greate quantitie of Corne, especially about the towne of REIGENBOURGE, and Passau. But because of the could Southarne291 winde which bloweth against these mountaines it is incommodious for wines to growe, and yet they have sufficiente store of wyne from the neighbour regions or Countries, exchanging wth the inhabitants for those goods which growe in their owne Countrie.292 There is no region of all Almany whern293 there are so many townes soe sumptuously builte, for there are 44 Citties, and 46 free townes, 12 Cloisters294 besides the villages castles and strong houses. Among the
289 Byshoprick … erected into an Archbishopricke: For the first time ET here correctly translates “reduit” (L’Epitome 53v) as “erected” (literally “changed”) rather than “reduced.” See notes 107 and 273. See also Introduction. 290 brasse: L’Epitome has “cuyvre” (54v). See note 282. 291 Southarne: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “Septentrion” (54v), which ET consistently translates correctly as “northern” elsewhere in the manuscript (54v). 292 goods which growe in their owne Countrie: Cf. “des biens qui leur restent de leur propre creu” (L’Epitome, 54v), i.e., “goods which remain to them of their own growing” (surplus produce). 293 whern: reading uncertain: could be “whem.” 294 44 Citties, and 46 free townes, 12 Cloisters: reading uncertain, but there is at least one mistranslation here. L’Epitome has “trentre quatre [34] villes, quarante six
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townes MUNCHIEN (the fairest towne of Almany295 is the principall where the Dukes keepe their Courte[.] They nourish lions alwaies there wch sometymes breede yonge ones. [31v] Nortgou or the Palatiny of Bavaria That parte of Bavaria is called Nortgou which is on the farther side of Danubius and it lieth towardes the forrest of Bohemia. The Capitall towne is NORRENBERGE of which this Countrie296 (as some thinke) is derived. And although this towne be not very aunciente, yet the castell within the towne seated upon the mountaine called Castrum noricum is very ould. In this Countrie there are many townes, Castles, Cloisters, and villages; as the townes of Amberg, Sultzbach, Anwarbach, The Cloister Castell where the Dukes of Mortgou used to keepe their Courte Eger, Neuenstade, Bierut, Eyslet, Napurg &c Most parte of these appertaine to the Palatiny. In this Countrie betwene the towns of Amber and Eger there is a mountaine called Fichtelberge containing 6 miles round aboute, in which there are all sortes of mettalls found, especially much iron, soe that all the Countrie is served therewith. There is much Azur found there. At the topp of this mountaine is a kinde of Sealike lake or lakelike Sea.297 From this mountaine there springe 4 rivers which runn through the 4 quarters of the world, to witt, the river Maine Westward, the river Egar Eastward, the river Sal Northwarde, and the river Nab Southward. You see in this mapp the river called Redmitts298 and another named Altmul. The yeare 293 the Emperour Charles the greate, or Charlemaine299 undertooke to have
295 296
297 298 299
[46] Places ou Franchises, septante deux [72] Cloistres” (54v). ET ’s 1’s, 2’s, and 7’s are, however, very similar; it is possible that she intended “72 Cloisters.” MUNCHIEN (the fairest towne of Almany: ET omits the closing parenthesis after “Almany.” L’Epitome has commas around the corresponding phrase (54v). this Countrie: i.e., this country’s name. L’Epitome makes this more explicit: “… Norenberg, de laquelle ce dit païs, comme aucuns cuident, a tiré son nom” (55v). a kinde of Sealike lake or lakelike Sea: L’Epitome has “une Mer, ou Lac” (55v). ET ’s translation shows her trying to make sense of a confusing text. Redmitts: It appears that ET has written a majuscule “R” over top of a minuscule “r.” or Charlemaine: This explanation is ET ’s addition. L’Epitome has only “l’Empereur Charles le Grand entreprint de faire” (55v).
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these 2 rivers gathered together by meanes of ditches, to the ende they might goe by water from Danubius to Rine[,] and to that effecte he sett many thousands on worke, but because of the continuall greate raine which fell from heaven at the same tyme, and bycause the soile is very sandye in those partes, all that which was digged in the daie tyme was filled againe in the night[,] and soe he desisted from his enterprice[.] There are yet some signes of these ditches by the towne of Weissenberge. [followed by small graphic symbol] [32r] FRANCOVIA The Countrie of Francovia is seated almost in the middle of Allmany. The soile is not soe fruitfull as in some other places being full of mountaines and forrests wch abound in venison[.] But although the grounde be sandy there groweth much wyne which they sende into forraine Countries. Riglue wood300 groweth there in such plenty that they sende it by cartfulls into other Countries. Villanotianus writeth that in noe place there growe greater wortes,301 onyons, or Turnepps then in this Countrie. The river called Maine runneth through this Countrie. Upon this river these faire townes are seated WERTEBURGE which as Aventinus writeth haith bene called Pæonia. The byshop of this towne calleth himselfe Duke of Francovia though there are many lordes in this Countrie. For the byshopp of Mayence and Bambergee, and the Countie Palatine hould in possession a greate parte thereof, and more then all that there ar many imperiall free townes. Betwene Bamberg and Norrenberge there is the towne of FORCHAIM which goeth beyond all others for the excellente whitenesse of their breade. The inhabitants saie that Pilate was borne in this towne. As for the towne of Norrenberge it is not certainely knowne whether it be in the Country of Francovia or Bavaria. The inhabitants wilbe of neither but a third nation by themselves. Notwithstandinge accordinge of to the etymologie of the name it seemeth to be seated in Nortgou, as who should saie Nortgouberch. Yet it is contained under ye Bishoprick of
300 Riglue wood: L’Epitome has “Le bois de rigalisse” (56v), i.e. “licorice wood” (LMF, s.v. “réglisse”). “Riglue” does not appear in the OED as an English word. Shawe has “Licorishe” (56v). 301 wortes: A wort is a “plant, herb, or vegetable, used for food or medicine; often = pot-herb” (OED). L’Epitome has “choux” (56v), i.e., “cabbages.”
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Bamberg, which is in the Countrie of Francovia NORENBERGE is a noble towne, builte and well peopled.302 There is greate Traffick of marchandize, and all kindes of misteries or trades303 by which the inhabitants are made very rich, Though the towne be seated in a very barren, sandy, drie soile. [followed by small graphic symbol] [32v] The Douchie of WIRTENBERGE Heretofore this region was an Earldom now erected into a Duchie of situacion almost rounde. It is a very fruitful Contrie adorned & garnished with townes and villages, amonge the which there are imperiall townes,304 to witt. ESLINGE, WIL, and RUTLINGE Then there is STUTGARD the principall towne where the Duke kepte his Courte. About this towne there groweth such store of wine that it is a common proverbe among them. weare stutgard grapes not gathered from the vine; the towne would neare be drowned in the wine.305 Meaning by that (because the towne is seated in a valley and the mountaines about it yeeldinge soe greate plentie of wine,306 that if they lett the grapes fall of themselves being ripe the towne would by the greate flowing of the liquor and the descente of the countrie307 be in danger of being drowned with wyne. Then there is the towne of THUBINGE in the which there is an Universitie founded and established by Earle Edwarde in the yeare 1477. Then WILTBALD and
302 builte and well peopled: L’Epitome has “bien bastie, & peuplée” (56v), i.e., “well built and [well] peopled.” 303 misteries or trades: L’Epitome has “mestiers” (56v), an early form of “métier,” which means “trade” (OED). ET shows an interest in etymology here (although “mystery” and “métier” are not true cognates, according to the OED), an interest possibly influenced by the discussion of etymology found earlier in this map description. 304 there are imperiall townes: L’Epitome has “trois cy sont villes Imperiales” (57v); ET omits the number. 305 weare stutgard grapes not gathered from the vine; the towne would neare be drowned in the wine: A rhyming couplet. See Introduction. 306 (because the towne … plentie of wine: In L’Epitome the corresponding passage is in parentheses (57v). 307 descente of the countrie: L’Epitome has “descente du païs” (57v). One meaning of “descent(e)” in both languages is “downhill slope” (HCR, OED).
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ZEL there308 are hott bathes, GEPPINGE which haith a fountaine of sowre savoure called in Almayn Saurbourne which helpeth many sicknesses ROTTENBURGE, HAILBRUNE[.] &c. and the Castle Wertenberg from which the Countries name was drawne seated upon the river Neccar, which passeth by this Countrie and yeeldeth it selfe to Rhine before the towne of Heidelbourge. About this river of Neccar there groweth good wyne which is called neccar-wyne. [followed by small graphic symbol] [33r] The Earldome of TIROL. This region is seated in the Alpes almost, betwene Bavaria and Italy. The principall townes therin are IMSPREUK which is the dwelling place of the princes of this Countrie and where the chamber and Parliamente of this Countrie, and the countrie of Austrich are. Then there is BOLZAN, a marchant towne, and the fortresse of Tirol. There is alsoe the towne of TRENTE much renowned because of the general Councill wch was held there in our tyme which309 obayed310 to the Duke of Austrich and partlie to the byshopp thereof. It is seated upon the fountaines311 of Almany and Italie and therefore they can speake both languages. Then there is HAL, They mak Salt and send it to their neighbour Countries. Then there is Brixea a Byshopricke: and the towne of BRUNECK312 which appertaineth to this bysshoprick. As for the towne of SCHWATZ every yeare they gett a greate quantitie of silver out of the earth. Cuspinian saith that this Earldom annually paieth to the prince one hundred thousand florents of gould because of the mines of silver. Likewise the best brasse313 that is to be founde is there, for
308 there: probably refers to Zel; L’Epitome has “icy” (57v), i.e., “here.” 309 which: i.e., the town, not the Council. 310 obayed: L’Epitome has “obeït,” which is both the present indicative and the past historic form of the verb in the third person singular (58v). The present tense would make more sense in this context, and that is what Shawe uses: “Trente … is subject in parte to the house of Austria, and partelye to the Bishoppe” (58v). 311 fountaines: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “frontieres,” a word she has had no difficulty with elsewhere (58v). See Introduction. 312 BRUNECK: ET omits a detail here; L’Epitome has “Brunecke avec une forteresse” (58v). See Introduction. 313 brasse: L’Epitome has “cuivre” (58v). See note 282.
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in other places there is none soe easy to forge as this here [followed by small graphic symbol] [33v] The Countrie of SWETLAND.314 The Swethians possesse the highest parte of Europe as some esteeme and it is very credible because soe many good rivers as Rhin Danubia, Po, Sone315 fall from the mountaines, of which the Countrie is full, and passe by divers regions in Christendom. There are in the valley of this countrie many lakes delightfull to the eie because for in the bottom you maie se perfectlie some little flintes wch are there and the fish swimme about sportinge themselves in this admirable profunditie or depth. And although this Countrie seeme to be of a very barren nature by reason of a greate nomber of rocks and mountaines yet it is very fruitfull and very well inhabited, by which inhabitants it is peaceably governed without any superiour (as Transylvania is likewise) by 13 leagued townes confæderate together by oath, and therefore316 called the confæderates, or Cantons: wch determine and ordaine among themselves all that wch any waie toucheth the Province; but every towne is governed by his perticular magistrate. Amonge these 13 there is SOLOTOURNE the auncienst towne of all Allmany excepte the towne of THRIEVES for it was built (as some write) shortlie after Abrahams time. Rhin which deriveth his springe out of this Countrie commeth to SHASHUSEN and then it falleth upon the rocks (soe that it seemeth all is towrned into dust and smoake)317 the height of ten or 12 cubites with such a 314 SWETLAND: i.e., Switzerland. L’Epitome has “Le Pais des Suisses” (59v). ET ’s names for Sweden and Switzerland do not distinguish between the two lands. See notes 162, 244, and 442; see also Introduction. 315 Rhin Danubia, Po, Sone: an abbreviated list. L’Epitome has “le Rhin, le Danube, le Po, la Sone, le Rhosne, &c” (59v). 316 therefore: possible “there fore.” ET divides the word over two lines, and has no hyphen, which she usually provides. However, she consistently spells “therefore” as one word throughout the rest of the ms. 317 (soe that it seemeth all is towrned into dust and smoake): In the second half of the manuscript ET shows increased interest in the rhetorical possibilities offered by correctly used parentheses; one of the two sets of parentheses in the original she has replaced with a pair of commas; one she has retained; two more, – including this one – both of which are handled correctly and effectively – she has introduced of her own accord.
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poure that if any shipp should passe by it would be broken and brused318 into a hundreth peeces. The valleys of this Countrie have everie one a perticular sorte of inhabitants. as in Ostgall there are none but Courtiours,319 in Zesia none but Masons and Bricklayers. In Escendaul armorers and spearemen. in Wegers Chimney sweepers wch goe about the Countrie to get their livinge: and in Galanker all are Wickerers: but most of them goe about to begg their breade. [followed by small graphic symbol] [34r] ITALYE320 There is no man that houldeth not his own Countrie in greate accounte but this Countrie of Italy hath alwaies bene highlie esteemed by people of straunge nations; and not without cause: for, it is the Queene of Christendome, and the princesse of the world which by her force and poure haith bene reduced under her obedience and by her learning and doctrine haith bene instructed and trained up in politique321 manners, lawes and customes. In such sorte that this region of Italy haith alwaies bene highelie commended by all wise and learned men. And what is he at this præsent tyme that professeth learninge322 that after he haith studied all those thinges which he thinketh may serve for the attaining of some science, as the knowlege of many tongues, languges, Physick, Lawe, Astronomy or Theologie &c: that besides all this will not goe se Italy being of opinion that this voyage maketh up the perfection of this arte & knowlege. This region by nature is of a good situacion and well fortified especially by the Sea and the reste of the mountaines323 which are as walls unto it. It is divided in the middle (beginninge at the mountaines called Alpes, above the towne of GENUA unto the Countrie of Puglia upon the Sea) by the mountaines APPENIM from 318 broken and brused: a translation more vivid than literal; L’Epitome has “mise & brisée” (59v). 319 Courtiours: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “Courtiers” (59v), i.e., “brokers” (HCR). 320 ITALYE: This title is the largest and one of the most ornate in the manuscript. See Introduction. 321 politique: L’Epitome has “bonnes” (60v), i.e., “good.” See Introduction. 322 learninge: L’Epitome has “lettres” (60v). 323 of the mountaines: L’Epitome has “de montagnes” (60v); “by mountains” would probably reflect the sense of the original more accurately.
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wch there runne many rivers wch on both sides yeelde themselves into the Sea. There is no Province in all Christendom wch is better garnished with somptuous and magnificent townes,324 amonge wch these are most famous and they wch the authors and vulgars honour with these titles or surnames. Holy ROME, gentil NAPLES, faire FLORENCE, rich VENICE, proude or statelie325 GENUA, greate or populous MILAN, fatt or fruitfull BOULOGNE, and auncient RAVENNA[.] [34v] FRIOUL This Countrie is called Frioul according to the latin Forum Julii. The Venetians (to whom it appertaineth) call it Patria. Hertofore it was called the Countrie of Aquileia according to the principall towne thereof. This Countrie is seated upon the Sea on the foreside, and on the hinder side wholly shutt upp and closed with mountaines: and soe it repræsenteth the manner of a natural Theater. In such sort, that it cannot be entered into but by sea or some straite wayes wch are by the mountaines. In this Province there are many faire feilds and very fruitfull. There groweth good wyne; and among others one sort which Pliny highlie commendeth calling it, Pucinum, accordinge to the place where it groweth, now called, Prosecho. There are likewise mines of Quicksilver. The Principall townes are Aquileia, or Algar, & UDINA. This Udina is a very greate326 to witt five Italian Leagues about. In the middle of it there is a certiane Moate, on the topp of which327 there is a very strong Castell. Aquileia is an aunciente towne: in wch there weare heretofore one hundreth and Twentie thousand inhabitants. This is a Patriarchie wch they saie St Marke builte first. By328 this Aquileia there is a certaine Ile seated upon the Sea with a town in it called GRADO 324 somptuous and magnificent townes: L’Epitome has “des villes magnifiques & bien cultivées” (60v). See Introduction. 325 proude or statelie: L’Epitome has “la superbe” (60v). 326 is a very greate: ET omits the word “town” from her translation of the original phrase: “est une ville fort grande” (L’Epitome, 61v). 327 on the topp of which: i.e., “above which”; cf. “au dessus de laquelle” in L’Epitome (61v). 328 By: “below” would be a more accurate translation of the original: “Au dessous” (L’Epitome 61v). No doubt the isle has a lower elevation than the town, which is more than two miles inland and therefore not at sea level. ET does not appear to have consulted the accompanying map. See Introduction.
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where they keepe the Ivory chaire of St Marke with greate reverence [followed by small graphic symbol] [35r] The Douchie of MILAN This Douchie of Milan is esteemed to be the best Douchy in all Christendom, as Flaunders is the beste Earldom. It is a very good and fruitfull Countrie, as all Lombardy is[,] of wch this Duchie is a parte. The principall towne is MILAN of wch the Douchies name is derived. This towne is taken for one of the greatest townes of all Europe, and the Castell one of the best fortresses of all Christendome. And notwithstanding the greatenes of the towne, and the woonderfull multitude of People.329 victualls are soe good cheape330 that it is marvelous: but that good soile, and the plenty of rivers wch runne out of the mountaines; likewyse the river Po, with which it is watred, is the reason of all: for by the said rivers there is brought in greate plenty, and at a small price, of all wch is necessarie for man; and alsoe for pleasure and recreation too. All sortes of Artes and Trades flourish in this towne that it is an incredible thing and therfore this Italian Proverbe was made Chi volesse rassettare Italia si roina Milano Thus in English. Who would againe set up faire Italy, must ruine sumptuous Milan totally.331 Theare are many faire & somptuous buildinges, amongst wch the greate church waie be well accompted the cheefe, in wch curious worke, it seemeth that Arte and sumptuositie striveth for victorie; for it sheweth not to be builte by Masons, but by gouldsmiths. To describe thother churches and houses would bee too taedious. But he that taketh pleasure to see a burgesse or a private mans house let him goe to Milan, and se the dwellinge place that a Genevian called Thomas of Marini caused to be 329 the greatenes of the towne, and the woonderfull multitude of People: ET ’s attention to matters of style is again evident in this translation. Cf. “la grandeur de ceste ville, & la grande multitude du peuple” (L’Epitome, 62v). In rejecting the more literal, ET may have wished to avoid repetition, or may have been drawn to the euphony of the phrase “woonderfull multitude,” or both. 330 soe good cheape: L’Epitome has “si bon marché” (62v). It appears that ET translated “bon” before she realized that the expression “bon marché,” i.e., “cheap,” needed to be taken as a whole. 331 Thus in English … totally: Here ET demonstrates her skill as a translator of Italian; L’Epitome provides no French translation of the aphorism. See Introduction.
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built in this place, and when he haith viewed it well both within and without he s/h/all se/e/ an admirable Architecture.332 Th’other good townes seated in this douchie are: PAVIA much renowned because of the universitie wch is there[;] and a battel fought 1525 wherin the king of Fraunce, Francis the first of that name was taken Prysoner. CREMA, LODI and CAMO. [35v] PIEDMONTE. Piedmonte is a parte of Lombardy seated at the foote of the Italian mountaines, named Alpes; and therfore it is soe called. It is a plentifull, and fruitfull Countrie, watred with faire rivers, and peopled with good townes, of which the towne of TURIN (heretofore called Augusta Taurinorum333 is the Capitall, seated upon Po, heretofore called Padus Endanus.334 There is an universitie. Without the walls there are mynes of iron. There are many other townes in this Countie335 seated in very fruitfull and pleasante places, all wch are under the Jurisdiction of the Duke of Savoy: but to shunne prolixitie I will omit them. In this table there is the description of the Countrie MOUNTFERRAT which nowe appertaineth to the Dukes of Mantua. The capitall towne is CASAL, St VAS where the Marquises used to keepe their Courte. In this Mappe youe see likewise the Countrie heretofore called LIGURIA, now called REVIER of Genua, because it appertaineth to the lordshipp of Genua, and stretcheth along by the Sea side. This Countrie is very stony naturally because it is sited in the hanging of the Appenim mountaines336 unto the Sea which is the reason that this Countrie is not soe fruitfull as th’other parts of Italy. Soe that in Italy they commonly use this proverbe of the towne of Genua. It haith a sea without fish, mountaines without trees, men without faith and wœmen without shame. It is a common wealth by it selfe as the towne of Venice is. The inhabitantes are all rich marchants which goe almost about all the world
332 333 334 335
Architecture: L’Epitome has “structure” (62v). Taurinorum: L’Epitome has a closing parenthesis after this word (63v). Padus Endanus: reading uncertain. L’Epitome has “Padus & Eridanus” (63v). Countie: a mistranslation, possibly a slip of the pen. L’Epitome has “païs” (3v), which ET usually translates “countrie”; she generally reserves “countie” for translating “comté,” as in “Savoy,” for example (14r). 336 in the hanging of the Appenim mountaines: L’Epitome has “au pendant des monts Appennins” (63v), i.e., “in the shadow of the Apennine mountains.” See note 69.
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to traffick with marchandises with which they have gotten in our tyme greate renoune and no lesse riches. [36r] The Lake of COMO. Auncientlie this sea was called Larius lacus, because of a sorte of birdes which there is plentie of, called in greeke Larus, and in latine Fulica, and in French Poulle d’/e/au () in English [??rd]appoe, or moreHen.337 It is a very plesant lake containing in length about 60 Italian leagues, and in the largest place the bredth is six leagues and the narrowest one league: being environed with very fruitfull mountaines, among which this lake is seated as in a valley of water. At the topp of these mountaines theare are very many chesnutt trees, in the hanging of them338 there groweth wyne339 and olives. The feete of these mountaines are garnished with forrests and tuftes of bushes, wherin there is plenty of venyson: soe that everie daie there are huntesm/en/340 and falconers. At the seaside there are fortresses and Castles, and the lake is very fruitfull in fish. Consider; I praie you, a little with your selves, whether it be not a delectable place to dwell in, being soe builte by arte,
337 [??rd]appoe, or moreHen: reading very uncertain. ET has used a more ornate hand here (represented as elsewhere in this edition by italics) so that it is difficult to determine, for instance, whether the opening flourish of the first word is a separate letter (majuscule “I”) or an ornament to the first letter (majuscule “W,” “M,” “N,” or something else). None of the possibilities suggests one of the known names for the bird in question. In fact, ET ’s ornate hand may in this case serve to disguise her own confusion, one to which the original French has in part contributed. “Larus” is the Latin (not Greek) name for the genus to which seagulls belong; “Fulica” is the Latin name for the coot genus (Svensson and Grant, Complete Guide to the Birds of Europe, 174, 116). The coot is also often called “mudhen.” However, coots may be easily confused with moorhens, genus Gallinula (ibid., 116), and the French term for moorhen is “poule d’eau” (Ehrlich et al., Birdwatcher’s Handbook, 599). 338 In the hanging of them: L’Epitome has “au pendant d’icelles” (64v), i.e., “in the shadow of them.” See note 69. 339 wyne: L’Epitome has “le vin” (64v). 340 huntesm/en/: ET appears to have written “hunters” first and then amended it; the “rs” is written over by the “s” and the first part of the “m.” The “en” is then inserted above the line to complete the word.
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and soe garnished by nature.341 Of one side the sea towards the South, there is the principall towne called Como[.] (appertaining to the Duchie of Milan) from whence the name of this lake is derived. This towne is fashioned like a Cravish342 plunnginge into the sea withe the forfeete the body staying still on the Earth. The soile about this towne is soe fertill in all kinde of fruites, yt it seemeth verylie this towne was builte (besides the good and healthfull aire it was seated in, for nothing els but for pleasure as if one should builde a house of pleasure, to sporte and recreate themselves in.343 [followed by a small graphic symbol] [36v] TOUSCANY. Touscany heretofore called Etruria haith on the East side the most famous river called Tiber, and on the Westside, the river Macra. This parte is esteemed to be the noblest of all Italy, and wheare they speake the best language. Within it is very full of mountaines, and along the sea side full of forrests. The inhabitants have bene very superstitious but now they are very Catholique wittie, and apte for workes and handicraftes as much in tyme of peace as warrs; and no lesse fitt for all sciences, artes, and traffick of marchandize. In this Countrie there are many fair & magnificent townes: among which Florence is the cheefe being divided by the river Arne, and joyned againe by meanes of four stone bridges, bravely garnished with a pallace, and pompous sumptuous and rich buildinge344 soe that it is the floure of Italy it haith the title or surname of faire. The towne of SIENNA secondeth it in beauty garnished and enriched with many buildinges, among wch there is the greate church of our Lady which is esteemed one of the fairest and richest church of all Europ, as much because of the ornamente as by reason of the rich marble wherewith it is built. Then there is PERUSA seated very pleasantlie among the fruitfull mountaines, a very stronge 341 being soe builte by arte, and soe garnished by nature: an elaboration that changes the meaning of the original: L’Epitome has “estant ainsi basti & orné de nature” (64v), i.e., “being so built and embellished by nature.” 342 Cravish: i.e., crawfish or crayfish; L’Epitome has “Escrevice” (64v). 343 one should builde … to sporte and recreate themselves in: This is ET ’s pronoun agreement error; there is none in the corresponding text. L’Epitome has “on feroit une maison de plaisance, pour s’y aller esbatre, & recréer” (64v). 344 pompous sumptuous and rich buildinge: an elaboration of the original: L’Epitome has only “edifices somptueux & riches” (65v).
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situated towne naturally[.] There is an Universitie,345 and the Sea victories thereof. VITERBA seated in a very delectable place, with a fountaine wch runneth alwaies. And LUCA which long and wisely haith kepte his liberty it is a mirrour of good govermente. [37r] The realme of NAPLES This last parte (which with the Duchie of Millan is the greater pte346 of all Italy) was called by the auncients magna Græcia, but nowe it is called the Realme of Naples, according to the principall and most renowned towne of this kingdome. This towne is very pleasante by nature, seated at the feete of faire mountaines in a most fruitfull soile, in good healthfull aire, upon the Coaste of the Sea: yea it is soe commodious that the most parte of the noble men of the Countrie, as many Princes, Dukes, Earles, Barons, Knights, as Gentlemen, for the greater parte of the yeare keepe house in this town, soe that there ar very fewe townes in the world comparable to this for the noble birth of the inhabitants. It is very greate and stronge, principally made soe by fortresses347 built heare by Charles the fifte Emperor. it is enriched with many Chu/r/ches, and magnificente temples impregnable Castles, with somptuous pallaces, and houses among which the Duke of Granvias, and the prince of Salernas are accounted principall. There are 4 Councell or senate houses, which they call, Seggi; that of Capua, of Nido, of Montagna & of St George: there where the lords and noblemen meete to treate of the affaires of the towne. There are very faire stretes which are not crooked. The Universitie is greatlie frequented with students of this Countrie. Without the town upon the Sea there is the Porte, wch they call Ill Nolo founded in the Sea & built with stone by greate arte, for the assurance of the haven which allwaies is full of shipps taking land348 from all places of the world. There are very delectable pleasant feilds, aboundinge in wyne & Corne, beautyfied wth cleare running fountaines,349 faire gardens, 345 an Universitie: ET omits translating the phrase that follows. L’Epitome has “elle a une Université frequentée d’une grande quantité d’estudiants” (65v). 346 the greater pte: “greater” in terms of size; L’Epitome has “la plus grande moitie” (66v). 347 fortresses: L’Epitome has “la nouvelle forteresse” (66v), i.e., “the new fortress.” 348 taking land: L’Epitome has “abordantes” (66v), i.e., “arriving.” 349 cleare running fountaines: L’Epitome has “fontaines faillantes,” i.e., “free-running fountains” (66v).
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odoriferante, and sweete smelling hearbes,350 hills full of all sortes of fruite and venyson. Soe that in this Country there is sufficiente to contente any man, not only for necessitie of life but also for the pleasure of sight, sente & savour. To conclude it seemeth to be a terrestriall Paradize. [37v] SICILIA351 Sicilia haith alwaies bene an/d/ yet is taken to be one of the best352 Iles in all the Meditereanean Sea. She is much renowned for her greate fertiltie, soe that hertofore they called it the garner of the towne of Rome. The warrs wch the Romanes waged againste the Carthaginians caused it to be very famous alsoe. In the eind it was generallie knowne by the burning mountaine Ætna, now called, Mount Gibell. Of this mountayne many Philosophers and Poets have written, because continually there came soe much fire and smoke out of it, as it doth yett. It haith in height 30 Italian leagues, and 100 leagues in circuit beneath,353 as Fazellus writeth, who haith looked upon it well and with no lesse curiositie describeth it. He declareth at large the spoile which it made many yeares together, as much in this Ile as in other neighbour Ilands. Likewise354 in the Ile of Malta, which is 160 Italian leagues distant from it. Among other he saith that the yeare 1537 the sixt daie of May,355 this Ile trembled twelves daies continually. Then
350 odoriferante, and sweete smelling hearbes: an elaboration of the original: L’Epitome has “herbes odoriferantes” (66v). “Odoriferant” is an English word as well, though now rare (OED). 351 SICILIA: very ornate lettering to this title, comparable to that of “ITALYE,” though slightly smaller. See Introduction. 352 one of the best: L’Epitome simply has “la meilleure” (67v), i.e., “the best.” 353 in height 30 Italian leagues, and 100 leagues in circuit beneath: not quite an accurate translation. L’Epitome has “plus de trente lieuës Italiques de hauteur, & plus de cent lieuës de circuit par embas” (67v), i.e., “more than 30 … and more than 100.” 354 Likewise: L’Epitome has “mesmes” (67v), i.e., “even.” ET uses “likewise” to translate both “semblablement” and “mesme,” the former appearing much more frequently in L’Epitome than the latter. See note 365. 355 the sixt daie of May: L’Epitome has “au premier jour de May” (67v), i.e., “on the first day of May.”
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there was a terrible thunder harde,356 with a flashinge ligteninge,357 as if it had bene our greate ordinance with the which many houses in this Ile weare shaken. This endured about 12 daies, afterward it did rive in many places, out of the wch chinkes or crevisses then brake out such aboundance of huge flames of fire, that for the space of 4 daies it spoiled and made to ashes358 all which was within 15 leagues compasse about, and many villages where wholly burned and spoiled therewith. The inhabitants of Catana[,] seated at the foote of this mountaine,359 and of many other townes abandoninge the townes fledd to the feilds. Little tyme after, out of the hole which is on the topp of the mountaine, there weare such quantity of ashes360 yt the ashes weare not only driven and blowne with the winde, into the extremities of the Ile, but beyond the sea even to Calabria. Certaine shipps swimming upon the Sea to goe from Missina to Venice, being 300 Italian legues weare endamaged therby. Behould here that wch Fazellus wrote in the latin tonge but more larglie. In this Ile ther have bene many magnificent townes as Syracusa, Agrigenta and others: but nowe Messina & Palerne are the principall. [38r] SARDINIA This Ile heretofore well knowne by the meanes of a marvelous herbe called Sardonica, wch maketh men dy with laughinge361 haith 240 Italian miles in Compasse. It is divided into 2 Partes to witt CAPODE GAGLIARE[,] and CAPO DI LUGDORE[.] That part which lieth towards Corsica is plesante and fruitefull, & produceth all wh is needefull for the sustenaunce of life, but it is fuller of mountaines then the south parte a flatt soile & boggy, it bringeth furth soe much Corne
356 357 358 359
harde: i.e., heard. flashinge ligteninge: L’Epitome has “un esclat bruyant” (67v), i.e., “a noisy flash.” made to ashes: L’Epitome has “mirent en cendres” (67v). seated at the foote of this mountaine: The equivalent passage in L’Epitome is in parentheses. 360 out of the hole which is on the topp of the mountaine, there weare such quantity of ashes: ET omits some detail. Cf. “le trou, qui est au sommet de la montagne, jetta trois jours de route telle quantité de cendres …” (L’Epitome, 67v). 361 heretofore well knowne … dy with laughinge: The equivalent passage in L’Epitome is in parentheses (68v).
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that it is thought if it weare well manured362 it would passe Sicilia. There is noe redd wyne but very good whitewyne & of an excellente taste[,] soe is the oile likewise. There is much cheese and skinnes of which all Italy participateth with them. These skinnes are of a certaine beaste which they call Muflo. It is a kinde of goate[,] of haire like unto a harte, but somewhat smaller, their hornes bending backwarde There is soe greate number of them that sometymes there ar 4 or 5000 taken at a blowe, wch they scorce and leave the carceseis here and there about the feildes. The ill savour of wch as some think is the cause of the pestiferous and contagious aire: some impute it to the evill windes wch ordinarily blowe there. The mines of silver & Brimstone wch weare woont to be theare are not to be founde; but yett there are Saltwiches,363 and healthfull hote baths. The inhabitants are stronge plaine rusticall sheperdish people fitt to labour, & givn to hunting, contenting themselves with simple meate and drinke. They are kinde to straungers, receiving them benig/n/ly and amiablie. They are peaceable among themselves. They neither make nor have any offensive weapons, but being constrained to defende themselves they sende unto other Countries for them. The Capitall towne is called Calaris it was once reduced by force of armes under obedience of the most renounned and auncient towne[,] Pisa, in Tuscony, but now is under the kinge of Spaines govermente. [followed by small graphic symbol] [38v] MALTA or Melita This Ile of Maltha haith alwaies bene highlie renowned because of the shipwrack wch St Paul suffred there, and of the serpente wch without hurte or offence to himselfe he shaked miraculouslie from his hands. And since that miracle there was never any venom found in any beaste: my author is Quintinus Hœduus364 who saith that children commonly plaie with Scorpions, and eate them without feling any harme or sicknes. Likewise365 the earth brought from thence into any other
362 if it weare well manured: L’Epitome has “qu’il fust bien cultivé” (68v), i.e., “if it were well cultivated.” See Introduction. 363 Saltwiches: salt pits (OED). 364 Hœduus: reading uncertain. L’Epitome has “Heduus” (69v). 365 Likewise: L’Epitome has “mesmes” or “Even” (69v). See note 354.
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Countrie killeth serpentes: wherefore the Treclers366 of Italy (who sell it to thatt einde) call it the grace of St Paul. The Ile is in compasse 60 Italian leagues: it is a flatt soile, stony wthout any rivers, and verry barren, bringing furth almost nothinge but cotten: wherefore, some call it raither a rocke then an Ile. Yet it is a fair dwelling place367 for the inhabitantes, because of the good havens, delicious368 fountaines, and pleasante orchards full of odoriferant roses hertofore highlie esteemed, and soe weare the little doggs alsoe called Canec Melitæi,369 wch are brought370 from thence for the ladyes, gentlewoemen, and Damsells of the Courte. It was first under the obedience of Battus kinge of Ciren in Affrica. Afterwarde under the commaundemente of the Carthaginians, then the Romanes governed it, from whom the Sarazines tooke it, who yeelded it by force to roger Norman kinge of the Sicilians, and since it haith allwaies bene under tuition371 of Christians. Pope Innocent caused a Councell to be held here against Pelagius to the wch there assisted 214 byshoppes, of wch S Austin was one, and Silvanus byshop of Melitha which haith his byshoprick in that towne wch carrieth ye name of the Ile, and is seated in the middle thereof. The knightes of the Rhodes372 wch inhabit it have æternized the renowne thereof by the repulse which they
366 Treclers: i.e., treaclers, or merchants carrying treacle (“Triacleurs” in L’Epitome, 69v). In ET ’s day “treacle” still carried its first meaning: “A medicinal compound” believed to be an “antidote to venomous bites, poisons generally, and malignant diseases” (OED). This compound, based on a recipe developed by Nero’s physician, contained sixty-four ingredients, including opium and viper flesh; by the Renaissance it had become “an object of major international trade” (Majno, The Healing Hand, 415). 367 it is a fair dwelling place: L’Epitome has “il y fait bon estre” (69v). 368 delicious: L’Epitome has “belles” (69v). ET may have been tiring of this rather general term. 369 Canec Melitæi: i.e., Maltese Terriers. Reading uncertain: could be “Canu.” L’Epitome has “Canes Melitæi” (69v), but in the 1590 Epitome the last letter of the word is blurry and could be taken for a “c.” 370 wch are brought: L’Epitome has “qu’on souloit amener” (69v), i.e., “which used to be brought.” 371 tuition: ET may intend the now obsolete meaning of “guardianship” (OED). L’Epitome has “& depuis les Chrestiens y ont tousiours commandé” (69v). 372 The knightes of the Rhodes: L’Epitome has “Les chevaliers de Rhodes” (69v).
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gave valiantlie and honorablie373 the yeare 1565 to the forces of the Turke Soliman374 to whom it seemed impossible to resiste. [39v] CORFU Corfu is a byshopricke[,] it haith in compasse accordinge to Bordon 300 miles and 40 in length. It is divided into 4. Partes. The first lying toward the Easte is called LEUCHIMO, that Westwarde LAGIRO; The thirde MEIDLE patria: and that outwarde is LOROS. The revennewe of all the Ile is parted into thre: of wch the first portion appertaineth to the Clargie, that is, to the Archbyshopp, and 12 Canons of the principall towne (wch beareth the name of the Ile) The seconde to the Barons thereof, but the greater part of this Portion is now delivered to the nobilitie of Venice, because the most parte of the said Barons are deceased. The third portion is divided among the vulgar or common people, a noteable thing. Southward the Countrie is very full of mountaines and northward plaine and united,375 excepte about the Promontory (a mountaine stretching into the Sea) upon the topp of wch the Venetians (who seazed of this Ile the yeare 1382) built an invincible fortresse, wch is called Neucastle, because there is one old in the valley betwene these twoe,376 The forsaid towne is seated in the hanging of the mountaine.377 This Castell is alwaies well provided with good garrison to keepe the inhabitants in obedience and to defende them against all forraine invasions. Once there was a good towne called Pagiopoly, in lieue of wch 378 now there are fair Saltwitches379 where they make good salte. There is no freshwater herabout unlesse they bringe it from
373 374 375 376
honorablie: L’Epitome has “chevalereusement” (69v), i.e., “chivalrously.” Soliman: Originally Solaman or Soluman, amended. united: L’Epitome has “uny” (70v). See note 207. in the valley betwene these twoe: This should not be read as a single phrase describing the location of the old castle. L’Epitome has “d’autant qu’il y en a un vieil en la vallée, entre lesquels deux est située la predicte ville” (70v); i.e., the town of Corfu is situated between the two castles. ET may have been misled by the ambiguous punctuation of the original. 377 in the hanging of the mountaine: L’Epitome has “au pendant de la montagne” (70v), i.e., “in the shadow of the mountain.” See note 69. 378 in lieue of wch: i.e., in the place of which. 379 Saltwitches: salt pits (OED).
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the fountaine called Cardachius. There is a faire porte, and the gulfe is full of fish, plenty of foule,380 and very good poultrie381 the aire is very healthfull, as it appeareth by382 that wood wch is there as Cedars, Oranges, and other such like fruite. There is greate quantity of honney and wax, much wyne, excellent oyle, and good hearbes for Physicke, but not much Corne[,] nor other graine. There are neithers wolfes nor beares but many other beastes fitt for huntinge. [39v] CANDIA The Ile is greater383 then Cypres, but lesse then Sicilia (as some thinke384 but next after Sicilia it is the best in all the mediterranean sea: it appertaineth to the Venetians. The most aunciente authors affirme, yt long agoe there was 100 inhabitant townes. Pliny (who lived in the Emperour Vespasians tyme) writeth that in his tyme there weare 40: but nowe (as Belon saith, who haith bene there, and with greate curiositie385 described it) there are but 3 townes of accounte, to witt, CANDIA wch is of the name of the Ile, CANEA, and RETIMO. This Ile[,] haith in compasse 520 Italian leagues. A Countrie full of mountaines, wherefore there is plentie of venison. It is much renowned because of the wyne which commeth from thence, called Malmsy, wch the Anwerpians call (because the Countrie appertaineth to the Venetians) Vinice Malmsy; it is dearer then other wynes. In the mountaines there are such store of Cypresse trees that it is a woonder,386 soe that from thence we have boxes and Coffers of that wood wch are sould387 about all Europe[.] This Ile heretofore was consecrated to the god Jupiter, because it is thought that he was borne, and noursed there. As yet they shew his sepulcher 380 foule: L’Epitome has “gibbier” (70v), i.e., “game” more generally. 381 poultrie: L’Epitome has “oseliere” (70v), i.e., either “bird-hunting” or “bird habitats” (DUF, s.v. “oiselier” and “oisellerie”; DAF, s.v. “oiseliere”). 382 by: i.e., because of. 383 greater: i.e., bigger. L’Epitome has “plus grande” (71v). 384 (as some thinke: ET omits the closing parenthesis (71v). 385 with greate curiositie: L’Epitome has “en grande diligence” (71v). One meaning of “curiosity,” now obsolete, is “careful attention to detail” (OED). 386 that it is a woonder: L’Epitome has “que rien plus” (71v), or, roughly, “that nothing can compare to.” 387 wch are sould: L’Epitome has “que l’on voit” (71v), or, roughly, “which one may see.”
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(wch as Bordon writeth in the booke wch he made of all the Iles in the world) in the north parte of the Ile: a Cave wrought by mans hand in length 40 cubites, and in bredth 4.Yet there is Jupiters Epitaph engraven in the topp of his bedd.388 [followed by small graphic symbol] [40r] CIPRES. The Ile of Cypres haith alwais bene highlie esteemed and environed with the Mediterranean Sea. It is seated in Asia, in length it is twice asmuch as in bredth. In compass as Gordon saith 421389 Italian leagues. The principall towne where the kinge/s/ weare woonte to keepe his Courte390 is called NICOSIA wch was taken the yeare 1570. by Selimus the se/c/ond of that name, a Tnrkish Emperour: & when they tooke it (my harte trembleth to thinke of it much more to write of it) they neither spared nor pardoned yong nor ould, ecclesiasticall[,] nor temperall, noble men:391 but murdered and robbed them all, sacked the towne, and the treasure wch they found they carried to Constantinople. Then there is the citie of Famagusla, endowed with a faire brigge, a strong marchant towne, from wch the Venetians possessing this Ile weare woonte to drawe greate commodity.392 This Ile is very fruitfull in Corne, OIle393 and wyne, wch is as good as if it weare Malmsy or Muscadell.394 In this place
388 in the topp of his bedd: L’Epitome has “engravé au bout de la teste” (71v). Although “teste” (head) is a common enough noun, ET may have confused it with the Old French “testre,” meaning “the vertical part of a bed behind the head” (OED), especially since she is likely to have been familiar with the English term “tester” used to describe either the canopy above a bed or the framework supporting the canopy (OED). 389 421: L’Epitome has “427” (72v). 390 the kinge/s/ … his Courte: an agreement error that was not in the original French. L’Epitome, however, has “les Roys … la Cour” (72v); ET may have misread “la” as “sa” (his) with a long “s.” 391 ecclesiasticall[,] nor temperall, noble men: L’Epitome has “ny aux Ecclesiastiques, ny à la noblesse” (72v). 392 commodity: L’Epitome has “prouffit” (72v). 393 OIle: reading uncertain. L’Epitome has “huyle” (72v), which ET usually translates either “oile” or “oil.” In this case she appears to have first written “Olle” and then written over the first “l” with an “I.” 394 Malmsy or Muscadell: a puzzling elaboration. L’Epitome just has “Malvoisie” (72v), which means “Malmsey.” Muscadel is made from a different grape.
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they make many sortes of Chamletts395 with goates haire. To conclude, this Ile aboundeth soe in many thinges that it needeth none but it selfe therfore it was called Matatias, that is to saie, fælicious or happy. In aunciente tyme it was consecrated to the goddesse Venus, because the fœminine sexe of this Ile weare much enclined or given to that goddesse.396 [followed by a small graphic symbol] [40v] The Countrie of GREECE This Countrie is a treue mirour of variable and inconstant fortune, for in tymes past it haith governed all other nations & Countries it is now subdued under the Yoke of the greate Turke, or under the servitude of the Venetians, which keepe some certaine Iles seated thereabouts, and in leiue w/h/eare it was woonte to be adorned wth all sciences and disciplines, at this præsente there remayneth nothing but grosse ignorance in all artes, resembling only their prædecessors in languages, and in certaine fashions wch they used especially in their auncient custome of drinking so much one to another. They doe not drinke greate draughtes as the Almayns doe, but they drinke often by small draughts[,] strong malmsey[,] in a little glasse without a foote soe that it cannot be taken out of their handes, if all that was poured into it be not dronke upp and not one dropp of wyne lefte in it. Thus it goeth rounde aboute, and they will never breake order. And if any man calleth for wyne before it come to his towrne he shalbe reputed uncourteous[,] uncivill, and unmannerly.397 Woemen come not to their banquetts, they are likewise absente at any eating or drinkinge before company. But they398 likewyse observe their aunciente custom of mourninge for the deade. In this order it is done. When any one deceaseth they assemble themselves in a certaine deputed place, and in the mourninge before daie they begin to roare, beate theire brestes, scratt their cheekes, and teare their haire, so that it would mollyfie a harte of flinte or Adamante, and
395 Chamletts: i.e., camlets. Camlet was the name given to a “costly Eastern fabric”; its composition varied, “but in the 16th and 17th c. it was made of the hair of the Angora goat” (OED). 396 to that goddesse: L’Epitome has “au service de ceste deesse” (72v). 397 uncourteous[,] uncivill, and unmannerly: An elaboration: L’Epitome has only “incivil” (73v). 398 they: i.e., the women. L’Epitome has “elles” (73v).
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make it relente and melte with watry teares in pittying them.399 Amonge the reste they chuse out a woman that haith a goode voice and smoeth bigger then the reste, to rayse the noyse, beginninge and letting fall her voice; sometymes she grumbleth betweene her teeth, and sometymes she makeeth pauses betweene, and the rest imitate her in cryinge, declaring all the good deedes that ever the deceased did even from the tyme of his birth untill his death. There are men in this company because they would easyly /behold/400 their neighbours wives and daughters: for all other tymes they cannot possibly gett a sight of them because they never shewe themselves openly but in this sorte. Commonly the grekes are attired after the manner of their prince. For those that obay the Tnrke are attired after the Tnrkes manner, or a la Turkesca, and if the Venetians commaund over them they are401 arayed to the fashion of Venice. Ordinarilie they weare greate tuftes of haire upon their heade behinde shorne shorte402 before, and they use greate double hatts upon their heades. They lie not upon feather bedds but upon mattresses made with & wooll,403 and they have very little househould stuff: in that the follow ye Tnrks wch never use to have much. [41r] ESCLAVONIA You see in this Mapp Windishmarch and Windishlande, Stuermark, Crabate, Kernte, Kraine, Karst, and Istria. These Countryes appertaine almost to the house of Austrich Istria excepted of which the Venetians have some parte. The Countries are full of mountaines and forrests. The townes and howses are almost all builte wth wood & thatcched overhead; excepte that quarter toward the Sea wheare the Countrie is a little 399 so that it would mollyfie a harte of flinte … in pittying them: A remarkable elaboration on the original; L’Epitome has only “que c’est grand pitié de les voir” (73v). See Introduction. 400 /behold/: L’Epitome has “contempler” (73v). 401 ET ’s handwriting grows gradually more compressed over the course of this description, and from this point on it becomes very cramped. She does succeed in fitting this lengthy text onto one page. 402 shorte: L’Epitome has “au dessus du front” (73v), i.e., “above the forehead.” 403 made with & wooll: L’Epitome has “faits de bourre ou de laine” (73v), i.e., “made of stuffing or of wool.” ET may have found this confusingly redundant, since in Renaissance French “bourre” could mean “Amas de laine [wool] grossière” (LMF ).
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richer. The river Sau & Drau wch fall into Danubia make these Countries somewhat fruitefull. Sturmar aboundeth in mynes of Iron in all Europe there is noe better. Likewise there are mynes of Salt. Here it is that men wth gret/e/ throtes /dwell/ there are among them that have under their skinnes[,] throates404 as bigg as a mans heade. The principall towne is GRETS it cammaundeth over the Country of Cyley. In Kerneten there is Villach a pleasant little towne girt in with mountaines, there is a stone bridge to passe over the river Drau. Then there is Claggenforte, the inhabitants of which (as Reitheymar saith) hate theeves soe woonderfully that as sone as they doe but suspecte any of robbery they hang them at a gate wthout giving of audience; or suffringe[,] either to declare their innocency or confesse their guilte, and then thre daies after they assemble themselves together, to consult of the matter and if they finde him innocente they cutt him downe from the gibbet[,] and entombe him honorably, but if the robbery come to light, they lett him hange. This Vindiqe or Slavon tonge goeth very farr soe that there is noe language in all Europe that stretcheth farther, for it beginneth at the gulfe of Venice unto the North Sea[,] and of one side it stretcheth to the major Sea heretofore called Pontus Euxinus, in such sorte that Slavon tonge405 in Istria, Crabate, Bosne, Methern, Bohemia, Lausnitz Slesi, Polonia, Littau, Prussia, Russia, and Muscovia; then on the Southern side towards the Realme of Swethland. Likewyse in Bulgaria, and then about yea even to Constantinople, it is much used in the Emperours Courte. [followed by a small graphic symbol] [41v] HUNGARIA Danubius runneth though all this Countrie dividing it into 2 parts the nether parte is called Hungaria above Danubia, and the further parte is called Hungarie406 under Danubius. The principall towne of the firte parte is called BUDA it was the kinges seate before the greate Tnrke tooke it the yeare 1541. This towne was wonte to be soe magnificente & 404 throates: i.e., goitres. L’Epitome has “le gosier dessous le menton” (74v). 405 in such sorte that Slavon tonge: ET omits the subject and verb from the clause she translates here; L’Epitome has “de maniere que l’on use de ce langage Esclavonique” (74v). 406 Hungaria … Hungarie: Both spellings translate the same name in L’Epitome: “Hongrie … Hongrie” (75v). ET may have chosen to vary her spelling in order to distinguish between the two regions.
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plentifull, in all thinges necessarie, and fitt for Pompe and pleasure that it was esteemed incomparable. Then there is Stulivessenbuchrough407 where the kings receave the Crowne & where the most parte of them are entombed. GRAN an Archbyshoprick, RAB. &c. STRIDON the place of St Hieroms nativitie, and many others. Here are the twoe greate lakes, Balaton & Ferrou. Hongria on thother side Danubius is divided into 2 partes by the river Tibisæ. (which the inhabitants call Teyssa) which is soe full of fish that they saie in manner of a proverbe that twoe partes are of water & the thirde of fish, soe that if anybody passe by the banke of this river, principally[;] in sommer it seemeth unto them that the smell the fish to conclude there is such a smell of fish in this Countrie that they cannot sell it sometymes they can hardlie finde out one that will give them thankes for a greate deale of it.408 In this quarter you have the townes of Pesburg, Tirnau, Calocza, Segfed, Varadan,409 Debrecz. Then there is sherin upon Danubius where as yet there are sene the ruines of the marvelous and woonderfull stone bridge that the Emperour Trajan caused to be built there which was beaten downe and raized by the Emperour Adrian his successor. And if this Countree surpasse all other in fish it doth no lesse in stronge and hardy men, in plenty of Cattell, in all kindes of mettalls, and in fatt grownde, soe that nature haith lente this region all her guiftes, besides the mines of gould, of silver, of brasse, of precious stones (as Diamonds, Rubies, Saphires, Emrauds Amatists, Turkesses, Topaces, & Agates)410 of Salte, and of sondry coloured dyes. In some rivers there is gould founde, and in soeme places in the mountaines, where there are vines planted there are mynes of goulde. There groweth such excellent wyne that it haith bene taken for Malmsy. There are soe many wilde beastes that hunting is free for
407 Stulivessenbuchrough: reading uncertain. L’Epitome has “Stulweissenburgh” (75v). 408 one that will give them thankes for a greate deale of it: L’Epitome has “quelqu’un qui le voudroit recevoir pour un grand mercy” (75v). ET makes this surprising fact yet more striking by stating that even “a greate deale of” fish may have no monetary value. 409 Varadan: ET appears to have first written “Varadin,” and then amended it. 410 (as Diamonds, Rubies, Saphires, Emrauds Amatists, Turkesses, Topaces, & Agates): This entire list of precious stones is ET ’s original insertion; L’Epitome has only “de pierreries” (75v). ET may be taking this opportunity to demonstrate her learning by showing that she knows the various types of precious stones.
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every man, and haires, Pheasantes, and partriches are common meates here. There is likewise soe much beefe & mutton that almost [42r] all Lombardy is maintained and nourished therewith. And annally above 80 beeves which they sende from thence into some other Countries only before the towne of Vienna there passe of Almany.411 There are plenty of all sortes of fruites. The inhabitantes speake like the Sathians whose tonge differeth from all the languages of all the neighbour Countries.412 [42v] The Duchie of OSWICZ & ZATOR This lordshippe is a region full of Forrests, and in parte hilly.413 It stretcheth Nortward alonge the river Wixel. Westward it coasteth the Relme of Polonia;414 and it is divided from Hungaria by the high mountaine Carpathus which some call Sarmaticus. The Country of Silesia bordereth it westwarde. This said mountaine (of which the auncient write marvailes415 is very longe from Easte to weste; and it haith (beside the Common name which is Carpath) many other denominacions accordinge to the languages of the neighboure
411 And annally above 80 beeves … there passe of Almany: ET appears to have found the French text confusing at this point. L’Epitome has “Et seulement par devant la ville de Vienne passent tous les ans plus de huictante mille bœufs que l’on envoye de là en diverses contrées de l’Alemaigne” (75v). This may be roughly translated as, “And by the town of Vienna alone each year more than 80,000 head of cattle pass, en route from Hungary to various regions of Germany.” 412 Surprisingly, although the conclusion of “HUNGARIA” occupies less than onequarter of fol. 42r, and the following map description, “The Duchie of OSWICZ & ZATOR,” is brief enough to have easily fit into the remaining space, ET leaves the rest of the page blank. Indeed, the remainder of the manuscript shows little evidence that she was any longer concerned about saving space. See Note on the Text. 413 hilly: L’Epitome has “montueuse” (76v). 414 Westward it coasteth the Relme of Polonia: L’Epitome has the region “costoyant le Royaume de Poloigne envers Orient” and adds that “Le païs de Silesie luy sert de liziere en Occident” (76v). Poland is to the east and Slesia is to the west in other words. See Introduction. 415 (of which the auncient write marvailes: The equivalent phrase is in parentheses in L’Epitome (76v).
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Countries:416 The Russians call it Biesced, The hnngarians Tarczall; the Almaynes Munch Vatter, Wurtzgarten Chremmitz & Shemnitz. The highest parte is called by the Almaynes Schneberge, which is as much to saie (snowy mountayn and by the Wandals Tatri; In this place there is a hill wch they call Babiagora, Here is the faire and pleasante towne SIWICZ which the Polonians call Tatzagora, it is accounted of noe lesse then the Capitall townes of this countrie which are those that beare the names of both Duchies. The Duchy of Oswicz is boggy, heretofore it was franke and free, but in the yeare 1454. in the tyme of Caumiru the third of that name it was reduced under the obedience of the kinge of Polonia, and the duchy of Zatur was reincorporated in the tyme of Sigismonde the first in the yeare 1548 about 400 yeare after that it was seperated from the alliance of this kingdome.417 [followed by a small graphic symbol] [43r] TRANSILVANIA or the 7 Suburbes.418 This Countrie taketh name from the 7 Suburbes that the Saxons built there. It is environed all about with mountaines, very high and full of forrestes, even as it weare a walled towne: soe that very hardlie one can either goe out or com in unlesse it be by some narrow places or streates where the rivers departe from the said Country[.] by the river called Alt,419 upon wch the fortresse called Rothurne is seated to garde the Countrie. Likwise upon the river Marish there is the castell called Bras for the defence of that quarter. The Capitall towne is called Cibinium in Alman Hermanstade a greate and stronge towne, there are about it many ponds wch make it almost invincible or inpregnable. Then there 416 accordinge to the languages of the neighboure Countries: ET compresses the original: “selon le païs auquel elle affronte & aboutit, ausi selon le langage des circonvoisins” (76v). 417 seperated from the alliance of this kingdome: slightly compressed. L’Epitome has “separé du corps, & de l’alliance de ce Royaume” (76v). 418 the 7 Suburbes: Here and again in the opening sentence, ET translates “Bourgs” (77v) as “suburbs.” A more literal translation may be “town” or “market town.” 419 by the river called Alt: Again it appears that ET has not grasped the significance of a geographical feature. L’Epitome has “par quelques destroicts, où les rivieres sortent dudict païs: comme à la riviere appellée Alt” (77v). In other words, the Alt is an example of the rivers that create routes by which one may enter or leave the country. See Introduction.
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is CRONSTAD The entry or goinge out of that quarter is garded by the castell of Turtffeste. They there Traffick with the Greekes. Twoe daies jorney from thence there is the towne of Terius in the Country of Walachy a good marchant towne: but it is under the tyranny420 of the greate Turke. The inhabitantes are for the most parte Saxons wch appeareth by their language which is Saxony, for they saie neither was nor Das, but watt, and Datt.421 Soe that this Countrie having in use the Almayn language is seated in the middle of those that speake straunge languages[,] to witt, Hungarian or the Slavon tonge, even as the Countrie of Bohemia speaking the Slavon tonge is seated in the middle of the Almayne language. Indeede it is very trewe that in some place of this Country the Hungarian language is spoken and most parte of the places, as mountaines, townes and rivers have a Hungarian name; but they have another in Almany it is a very fruitful region, plentifull in Cattell and corne[,] in mines of Salte, iron, Brasse, silver and gould. In some rivers there is gould founde as if it weare sande, and sometymes peeces that waighe a pound and an halfe. There are good wilde horses, which runn with an incredible celeritie, their maynes hange unto the grounde; and wilde beeves422 which have high backs long haire upon their neckes and upon their shoulders, a beard upon their chinne,423 and twoe greate eyes. In this region there is a little perticular County, on the nothside called Zekelland, the inhabitants thereof are good souldiours and speake the Hungarian language. There are neither gentlemen nor Peasants among them, but they are all esteemed alike and they are free as the Swethians are. There are thre places wch they call seates, to witt Kysdy, Orbaz, and Scepsy. which they call where they banquett in any assembly[.]424
420 tyranny: “domination” in L’Epitome (77v). Tyranny is an important concept to ET. See Introduction. 421 was … Das … watt … Datt: Cf: “was ny das, ains wat & dat” (L’Epitome, 77v). Once again ET makes no attempt to translate from German to English. See note 82. 422 wilde beeves: L’Epitome has “des Buffles ou bœufs sauvages” (77v). 423 chinne: possibly “chinm” amended to make “chinne.” 424 where they banquett in any assembly: ET introduces the notion of a “banquett” here; L’Epitome has “où ils conviennent quand ils tiennent quelque dictie” (77v). Shawe has “where they holde theyr assemblyes of counsel” (92v).
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[43v] PRUSSIA Prussia appertaineth wholly to the crowne of Polonia, excepte the Duchie of Prussia which is comprehended therin, and now it haith a duke by it selfe. This region Eastward bordereth upon the Country of Lithuania, the Country of Polonia Southwarde, Westward the Countrie of Pomeran, and Northward the Country called Livonia, and the Orientall sea. There are many good havens, and upon the sea side there are many faire, and magnificent townes, among which ANTFick is a greate marchant towne. It is a plentifull Countrie in all kinde of graine, venyson and fish.425 Then there is Elbinge, and Koningberge the princes Courte. The Countrie is well peopled. All about in the towns and at the sea side they speake Almayne, but within the Countrie & in the villages as yett they speake their aunciente language. Whosoever goeth through this little Countrie he may thinke he haith bene almost over all the world for here is as you maie see in this mappe[.] Rome, Venice, Brandebourge, Wittenburge, Luneburge, Cracowe, Straeburge,426 Holland & townes of such like names wch are likewise seated in other partes of the worlde [44r] POLONIA This kingdome is divided into Greate[,] and little Polonia. In Greate Polonia there are these townes, GUESPE, & PASNAVIA In little Polonia Cracowe seated upon the river Wixel (wch runneth through the middle of this Realme) a greate towne and the kinge keepeth his Courte there. Th’other townes ar not greatly renowned the houses as builded with wood & Claie, & strawe & haie. It is a woodland Country and twoe pleantifull in rivers, There groweth no wyne but Corne enough. They
425 upon the sea side … venyson and fish: ET has reorganized the order of sentences and clauses significantly here, achieving compression at the cost of some detail and accuracy. Cf. L’Epitome: “Icy y a plusieurs bons ports, & sur le bort de ceste Mer l’on pesche de l’Ambre. C’est un païs abondant en toute sorte de grains, en venaison, & en poisson. Il y a plusieurs belles & magnifiques villes, entre lesquelles Dantsick est une grande ville marchande, située sur la Mer, à l’emboucheure de la riviere Wixel” (78v). 426 Straeburge: ET may have originally written “Steaeburge” and then amended it. L’Epitome has “Straesbourg” (78v).
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drinke Ale. There are store of mynes of salt, honney, Wax.427 Betwene the mountaines of this Country and Hungaria (wch the inhabitants call Tatri) there are[,] mynes of Brasse428 and Brimstone. Under the Jurisdiction of this realme there are, Lithuania, Samogitia, Masovia, Volhinia, Podolia, Russia, or Rustenia (otherwise called redd Russia) and all the Countrie of Prussia wch a perticular Duke429 in such soete430 that the domination of this kinge stretcheth very farr both in bredth and length to witt from the orientall Sea, to Mare mortuum. This Countrie of Lithuania[,] is soe boggy and full of trees that in summer it is difficult to enter into it for the greate quantytie of waters, but in winter when the ditches and pondes are Frozen and hidden with snowe, it is good going with tramelnetts. Then they bringe and carry to and fro marchandizes. There are not many townes, & villages, and those which are evill inhabited431 The riches of the inhabitants cheefely consiste in cattells furres, & skinnes of divers beastes, wax and Honney, of which there is greate plenty soe thare432 is likewyse of wildes beeves wch they call suber, and in Almayn Hurochs, and foure footed beastes wch they call Losse & Ellende, or Alce. They know not what silver meaneth they speake the Slavon tonge. The principall towne is called VILNA a byshopirick, where there are433 no houses wch joyne together, for there are Orchards and gardens betweene every house. SAMOGITIA or lowe Countrie, haith neithe Citty nor walled Castell therin but little Cabines made of wood & strawe of the fashion of a Clocke434 havinge a hole in the topp which serveth for a Chimney to the fire wch they make underneath soe that the maister of the 427 Wax: Following this point in the corresponding text, L’Epitome adds information, which ET omits: “& force bestail tant domestique que sauvage” (79v). 428 Brasse: L’Epitome has “cuivre” (79v). See note 282. 429 wch a perticular Duke: ET ’s translation loses the clarity of the original: “excepté le Duché, qui a son Duc particulier” (L’Epitome, 79v). 430 soete: reading uncertain: may be “sorte.” 431 There are not many townes, & villages, and those which are evill inhabited: ET appears to have had difficulty translating the ambiguous original: “Il y a peu de villes & villages mal habitez” (L’Epitome, 79v). 432 thare: reading uncertain. ET may have written “that” and then tried to amend it to “there.” 433 are: Here ET appears to have caught and corrected a subject-verb agreement error; it looks as if she first wrote “is” and then amended it. 434 a Clocke: A mistranslation. L’Epitome has “une cloche” (79v), i.e., “a bell.”
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[44v] house may se about him all his househould stuffe and Cattell. They are poore people of highe stature[.] when they have any sonnes they are either of tall stature, or els exceeding dwarfes and none of a midlinge stature. Masovia is a fiefe of Polonia. The Capitall towne is Varsovia Here they make the best drinke of honney, or honney of wyne.435 [45r] LIVONIA or LIVFLANDE. Livonia stretcheth in length by the sea side more then 4000 fourlonges. and in bredth at the least 2300. The Prussians, Lithuanians & Russians dwell about it: the rest joyneth to the Livonian Sea. There are thre nations in this region wch differ noe lesse in manners then in language; to witt Curonians, Estinians, and Lettonians. The Countrie is full of wood, flatt, & without mountaines: but abounding in rivers. The soile for the most parte ill manured,436 and yet the feildes are reasonably fruitfull, for besides, wyne & oile437 with some such like other thinges (wch are in places wheare the aire is pleasanter) there is such plentie of all thinges necessarie for humane life that straungers perticipate liberally with them. Munster saith that in this Countrie hares438 chainge theire Coloure, accordinge to the season, in winter they are white, in ‘sommer439 graye. Out of this Country we have annually, Rie, Wax, Honny, ashes, flax and greate plenty of wett and drie Pease, which they call Ter. Theare are greate & somptuously built Citties amonge which these are the principall RIGA inhabited by those of Breeme, wch is seated in a very commodious place, by the river Duina, 435 honney of wyne: L’Epitome has “vin miellé” (79v). 436 ill manured: L’Epitome has “mal cultivé” (80v), i.e., “poorly cultivated.” See Introduction. 437 besides, wyne & oile: a mistranslation: wine and oil are among the few things that cannot grow here. L’Epitome has “sans le vin, l’huyle … qu’ils ont d’ailleurs … , on y trouve … tout ce qui est necessaire” (80v). Cf. Shawe: “the soile is very frutefull, and aboundant in corne, cattell, … and of all things elce, wyne and oyle excepted” (95v). 438 hares: reading uncertain. ET has attempted either to cross out the first “e,” or to amend it by writing an “i” over top of the “e,” in which case the word should read “haires.” 439 in ‘sommer: ET ’s use of the inverted comma here is puzzling. There is no corresponding element in L’Epitome.
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a marchant towne & principall of this Countrie. Th’other is RIVALIA or Revela (wch the Russians call Rolivan) builte by Woldemarke Kinge of Denmarke) it is much renowned because of Hesrhavere440 wch is at the baltick Sea: it trafficketh noe lesse then riga. The third is DERPT[,] seated by the Russians who call it Luriongorod. The river Beca passeth by the walls of this towne makinge it very commodious for traffick with the Russians. This river is conveyed by a channel into the Ocean[,] and it falleth soe violentlie in some places from the high rockes, that the neare neighboures by little and little become deafe, even as it happeneth to those who dwell about the Cataractes of Nile. Besides these there are other little townes wch are well provided wth magnificente fortresses; all the inhabitants excepte in the villages speake the Saxonik or raither ye Almayne language. They are governed by the Almayne magistrates. [45v] The Northern Countries.441 You have in this Mappe all those Northerne Countries wch are yet knowne. First there is the Countrie wch the auncientes called the Ile of Scandia, wch containeth in it the realme of Swethlande,442 Norway and a parte of Denmarke. Then there are the Iles of England, Scotlande Irelande, Friseland,443 Iseland, and Gunland444 wch is the furtest knowne Countrie Northward although G Mercator addeth another Ile which he baptizeth by the name of Grodeland.445 Swethland is a region full of mountaines, plentifull in Cattell and good foule: likewise because of the greate company of lakes and rivers wch are there)446
440 Hesrhavere: reading uncertain: could be “Heschavere.” L’Epitome gives no name for this port of Rivalia, only asserting that Rivalia is “fort renommée à cause du port qui est à la mer Baltique” (80v). 441 The Northern Countries: L’Epitome has “Les pais Septentrionaux” (81v). 442 Swethlande: i.e., Sweden. L’Epitome has “le royaume de Suesse” (81v). See notes 162, 244, and 314; see also Introduction. 443 Friseland: L’Epitome has “Frislande” (81v). See note 16 and Introduction. 444 Gunland: L’Epitome has “Grunlande” (81v), i.e., Greenland. 445 Grodeland: L’Epitome has “Groclande” (81v). This island, like Friseland, is nonexistent (Ramsay, No Longer on the Map, 204–5). See note 16 and Introduction. 446 there): The corresponding passage in L’Epitome ends with a comma; there are no parentheses (81v).
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abounding in fish. It is rich in mynes of silver, laten,447 leade, and iron, and reasonably fertill in all kinde of fruites. The principall towne of this kingdom is called STOCKHALRA builte upon stakes of wood within the Sea and therefore very stronge, yea even as stronge as Venice Here the K: keepeth his Court commonly. UPSALE is the Archbyshoprick of this Countrie. Gotland or the Gothick Countrie appertaineth to this realme (in it is the towne of CALMAR a marchant towne and stronge enough by meanes of the Castle) likewise soe doth the Duchy of Finland, and ye Country of LAponia, Bodnia, Biarmia, & others. The County of Norway stretcheth along the sea side and is divided from the Realme of Swethland by a greate mountayne. It appertaineth to the realme of Denmarke[.] It [is] /is/ of a pretty good nature, if it weare not enpoverished by the servitude the danes have reduced it unto taking awaie trafficks & march[and]ize448 from it. All the riches of the Country consisteth in Cattell and fish From thence we have all our Haberdine or stockfish. BERGUES is ye principall towne & NIDROSIA (in Almayn Thrundthem) is a byshoprick. The Ile called Friselande is yet unknowne. But Iseland is a wonderfull Ile: there is the mountaine Hecla, at the topp of wch there is snowe, and at the bottom a burning fier continually. There are beares, foxes, and white Crowes. There groweth no Corne but the marchants bringe in enough exchaunginge it for fish and butter wh they carry backe[.] The inhabitants ordinarily dwell under grownde in Caves because the Country is soe extremely coulde. [46r] The Empire of RUSSIA or MOSCOVIA The Country of Russia is not wholly described in this Charte, but only that wch appertaineth to the Duke of Moscovia who entitleth himselfe Emperour of Russia. His Empire stretcheth from the Northsea to the 447 laten: L’Epitome has “cuyvre” (81v), i.e., copper, although ET has hitherto translated it as “brass.” “Latten” is a “mixed metal of yellow colour, either identical with, or closely resembling, brass” (OED). See note 282. 448 It [is] /is/ of … mar[chand]ize: Two ink blots, one near the left margin and one near the right margin of the page, make some of the text illegible; letters given within square brackets have been determined by context and by consulting L’Epitome. The blots correspond to those on fol. 46r and thus were most likely caused when ET closed the ms. before the ink on fol. 46r was dry. She has inserted “is” above the line, outside of the blotted area, evidently an attempt to restore what was lost. See note 451.
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Realme of Polonia, and Countie of Lithuania (wch is comprehended within the name of Russia also) And Southward towarde the Caspian Sea there he hath taken lately the towne of ASRACAN seated at the entry of the river Volga And if he pusue his enterprise as he haith begunne he will shortlie[,] seaze (which god forbid) of all the reste. on the eastside his raigne is divided from Tartara, by the river Oby and the lake Kitaya Westward it extendeth unto the realme of Suethland, and Livonia. The Country is very full of Forrests, and without mountaynes plentifull in skinnes and furs of greate estimacion, wch they send about all Europe to be soulde. The inhabitants for the most parte agree & concorde with the Greekes in religion. They wear long gownes without plates,449 and with straite sleeves of the fashion of Hungarie: likewise redd buskines, but very shorte for they will scarce come upp to their knees. The soles of their shooes are garnished with little plates of iron. They are not girte upon their bellies but under their hams[,]450 the girdle descending straite und?? their /bellys/ 451 because their bellyes should shoue soe much the greater. They marry and permitt second marriage, but they ha/r/dlie thinke it to be a lawfull marriage. likewise they privileghe452 divore.453 The woemen leade a very unpleasant454 life, for she is not accounted an honest woman unlesse she never goe out of her house, no not once.455 It is a fraudelous456 deceitfull people, and
449 plates: i.e., pleats. L’Epitome has “pliz” (82v). 450 under their hams: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “au dessus des hanches” (82v), i.e., “above their hips.” 451 und?? their /bellys/ : Cf. “par dessus les parties honteuses” (L’Epitome, 82v). ET may have written “upon” and then written over the last three letters to change the word to “under.” “Under their bellys” is a reasonable rendition of the original, which more literally translates as “over the shameful parts.” ET has written “bellys” outside the left margin, apparently her third attempt to translate the corresponding French term, the first two (one at the end of a line and one at the beginning of the next line) being marred by inkblots which completely obscure the words written. See note 448 and Introduction. 452 privileghe: i.e., permit; L’Epitome has “permettent” (82v). 453 divore: reading uncertain: may be “Divorc.” 454 unpleasant: L’Epitome has “povre” (82v), i.e., “poor.” See Introduction. 455 unlesse she never goe out of her house, no not once: In Mariam, ET will examine the psychological consequences of such a life. See Introduction. 456 fraudelous: L’Epitome has “cauteleux” (82v), or “cunning.”
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more at ease, being in fortitude457 then at libertie, confessinge freely that they are all slaves to their lorde. They punish sharplie highwaie theeves and robbers but they seldom punish pettie larciny, and458 homicide with death. Their money is silver, not rounde but in the fashion of a flatt Egg. They never lightlie rest[,]459 for they saie ease is for greate lords. They manage warrs continually against those of Lithuonia, or Livonia or againste the Tartarians; and if it chaunce that at any tyme there be no Warrs in the Countrie[,] they muster themselves in garrison, upon the river Don[,] hertofore Tanais, or upon the river Occa because they would not be assailed by the Tartares. [46v] TARTARIA or the greate CHAMS Country. The name of Tartaria was first discovered to those of Europe when the people of that Country weare the 1200 a poureable army460 assailed the Country of Russia, which was by them greately endamaged. This people (which calleth it selfe BESERMANY461 possesseth many regions of Asia and is divided into many troupes or companyes wch they call in their language Horda, wch is as much to saie Communaltyes. And even as these people dwell farr one from another, soe are they in theire living462 havinge neither lawe nor pollicie amonge them. The dwell not in townes but in the feildes, and never staie longe in one place, but assoone as ever their Cattell haith devoured and eaten the grasse of one place & yt ye wilde beastes are taken they chainge places, esteeming it as greate poverty to be longe in a place. The North-starr, or that which is called Selisnicol (which signifieth Iron naile) guideth and directeth it.463 They 457 fortitude: a mistranslation; L’Epitome has “servitude” (82v). 458 and: L’Epitome has “ou” (82v), i.e., “or.” 459 They never lightlie rest: L’Epitome has “Ils sont peu souvent en repos” (82v), i.e., “They are seldom at rest.” 460 when the people of that Country weare the 1200 a poureable army: a confusingly incomplete translation. L’Epitome has “alors que son peuple avec une puissante armée,” i.e., “when the people [of that country] with a powerful army” in the body of the text, with “L’an [The year] 1212” printed in the margin (83v). 461 (which calleth it selfe BESERMANY: The corresponding French phrase is in parentheses. 462 soe are they in theire living: a bit cryptic, as is the original. L’Epitome has “aussi sont ils bien esloignez en leur maniere de vivre” (83v). 463 it: i.e., them.
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neither knowe goulde nor silver, for they are generally poore people, and therefore greate robbers. They are of a midling stature, reasona/b/lly stronge of body, and of greate courage, broade faced, hollowe eyed shaven every wheare excepte theire chinn, for they weare huge beardes.464 They eate horses or any other kinde of Cattell, pigges excepted, in what sorte soever it die. They can endure honger and sleepines longe. But if peradventure they fainte by the waie for honger and thirste they lett their owne horses bludd and feete465 thereon. In this Countrie of Tartary, there is the region called Tanquit, from whence we have all the Reubarbe that is used about the world. Here is likewise the Countrie of CATAYO in which is the square towne, of CHAMHALEU466 containinge 2032 Italian leagues.467 And about 15 daies journey from Chambaeu,468 is the greatest towne in the world, called QUINSAY[,] that is to saie, cœlestiall Cittie, for the pleasante place it is seated in, to witt, upon a pleasant, cleare, coole, fresh sweete lake469 which haith 1200 bridges upon it. It haith in compasse 100 Italian leagues. The principall lorde of this Countrie is called in their language CHAM that is to saie, Prince; and Chambalu, is interpreted ye Princes Citty. [47r] CHINA This greate & large Country470 of China containeth 240 famous Citties. There are infinite, and well peopled villages. The greatnesse of the townes may easyly be conjectured by that of Canton wch is one of the leaste, and it haith in compasse 12350 paces and more besides the 464 huge beardes: L’Epitome has “barbes rudes” (83v), i.e., “rough beards.” 465 feete: a mistranslation; ET may have intended “feede.” L’Epitome has “& se repaissent de ce sang là” (83v). 466 CHAMHALEU: L’Epitome has “Chambalu,” which ET accurately transcribes below (83v). However, it is difficult to distinguish between the minuscules “h” and “b” in her own script, and she may not have distinguished well between these two letters in L’Epitome’s font herself. 467 2032 Italian leagues: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “28. ou bien 32. lieuës Italiques” (83v). 468 Chambaeu: L’Epitome has “Chambalu” in L’Epitome (83v). 469 a pleasant, cleare, coole, fresh sweete lake: a significant elaboration of the original; L’Epitome has simply “un lac doux” (83v). See Introduction. 470 Country: L’Epitome has “Royaume” (84v), i.e., “kingdom.”
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suburbs wch are greate, and well peopled[.] The people are ingenuouse, soe that they have invented and builte chariotts, which they can guide up and towne the feildes and plaine Countries with sailes and windes, as it weare a shipp by Sea. They had alsoe the arte of printing bookes longe before ever we thought of it. They have an infinite nomber of shipps[,] gallyes and all kinde of boates[,] with which they goe through the Sea and rivers soe that when for vayneglory the woulde shewe the poureablnes of their kinge they use to saie in a common Proverbe that they can make a bri/d/ge of shippes joyned together that shall reach from China to Malaccas wch is above 500 leagues: and because you maie beleeve it there are as many people that dwell in the shipps, as in houses. All this region is subjecte to one only kinge as to a Monark[:] wch they call lord of the world, and sonne of the heavens. He keepeth his Courte at Paquin, wch is a towne drawing towards Tartaria. They saie that when he manageth warrs against the Tartarrs, he bringeth an army of 300000 footemen &[.] 20000 horsemen.471 As from472 religion they beleeve that all thinges created and the goverment of them dependeth of heaven,473 wch they thinke is the greatess of all the gods.474 [47v] INDIA This region of India is the greatest of the worlde, contained under one only name, and there is no countrie nobler under the vault of the azurd couloured skies:475 none more fruitfull[:] yealding most excellente fruites, as much for those that are necessarye, as those that are for 471 300000 footemen &[.] 20000 horsemen: ET omits a “0” from the second number; L’Epitome has “trois cents mille [300,000] pietons, & deux cents mille [200,000] chevaux” (84v). 472 As from: i.e., “As for.” L’Epitome has “Quant à” (84v). 473 heaven: L’Epitome has “Ciel” (84v): as the following clause makes clear, “Ciel” is a proper noun in this context. 474 L’Epitome has one more sentence after this point, which ET omits entirely. L’Epitome’s text concludes, “Ils adorent le Soleil & la Lune, & les estoilles; voire aussi le diable; à fin qu’il ne leur apporte quelques maux, comme ils disent” (84v). See Introduction. 475 under the vault of the azurd couloured skies: a significant elaboration on the original: L’Epitome has “sous la voute du Ciel” (85v), i.e., “under the vault of the Sky.”
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pleasure of humaine nature)476 none more healthfull aire, and where people live longer. It fillith the worlde with precious stones, spices and perfumes. All mysteries477 and Arts aree come to the highest degree— soe that printinge was in use there above 1000 yeares agoe; as ye curious cosmographer John Barros witnesseth in his booke of Asia and the Jesuites who in our tyme made many voiages into this Countrie tryinge to converte it to the Catholique faith with greate diligence. There is no countrie that haith so many greate townes well peopled, nor soe many faire havens in which they exercise theire traffick of marchandize more. For all these thinges this region haith bene alwaies highlie esteemed both by the aunciente & moderne writers In such sorte[,] that (if Paradize have any place yet) it may well be called the terrestriall Paradize. In the Sea of this Country there is a world of rich Iles, among which there are SAMOTRA, the twoe JAVAS,478 the MOLUCCAS (from whence we have our principall spices, and the marvelous rare birde of Paradize, in their Language Manucodiatta, that is to saie gods bird) and JAPAN which was discovered the yeare 1550. The inhabitants of this Ile are very ingenious, and enclined to sciences, agreeinge in many pointes of religion & life479 with the Christians. They adore one only god which they picture with three heades, but they knowe not the reason why[.] They have a superiour to whom all of theme obaye.480 although that above him there is another whom they call Voo, who beareth the ecclesiasticall charge as our Pope. The Spanyards nominate America481 alsoe by thename of India, but wrongfully. This deriveth her name from the principall and famous river Indus passing by the said countrie: & if 476 as much for those that are necessarye, as those that are for pleasure of humaine nature): ET omits the opening parenthesis in this somewhat awkward translation. L’Epitome has “(donnant fruicts tresexcellents, tant pour servir à la necessité, qu’au plaisir de la nature humaine)” (85v). In other words, the fruit are as excellent for serving necessity as they are for serving pleasure. 477 mysteries: i.e., crafts. L’Epitome has “mestiers” (85v). See note 303. 478 the twoe JAVAS: L’Epitome has “les deux de Java” (85v), i.e., “the two [isles] of Java.” 479 life: L’Epitome has “maniere de vivre” (85v), that is, “manner of living.” 480 to whom all of theme obaye: L’Epitome has “auquel ils portent tous obeïssance” (85v), i.e., “to whom they give all obedience.” 481 The Spanyards nominate America: L’Epitome has “Les Espagnols nomment leur Amerique” (85v), i.e., “The Spaniards name their America.” ET omits the possessive adjective.
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they woulde give America a name accordinge to the principall river, they should raither call it Oreliana or Amazonia. [followed by small graphic symbol] [48r] The SOPHIS Country or the Realme of PERSIA The Realme of Persia, which now in our tyme is governed by the Sophy heretofore was greatlie renowned as it is yet: containinge many countries482 under it, & it extendeth farr. This renowned race or483 line of the Sophys had his originall aboute the yeare 1360 (as John Barros declareth in his description of Asia) by a Persian Gentleman whose name was Sophy, retaininge, for himselfe the towne of Ardena.484 This man derived his pettygree from Mahomete, which he brought about by his nephew485 Muscazin,486 who was of the house of Ali[,] Mahomets brother in lawe; and seeing that there was no Califfe in Babilon: & those that tooke487 the Turkes parte weare vanquished by the Tarters, he began to publish and sprede abroade the opinion wch he had of religion, by which meanes he entred into such credit with the people, alwaies desirous of novelties that he made himselfe monach488 of this Countrie[,] And after his decease all his successors in memory of him weare called by the name of Sophy. Continually they wage warrs againste the Turkes for the religion of Mahomet whom the call heretiques.489 Soe likewise doe the Turks call the Persians, because; their expositours of the Alcaron doe not agree. The Persians are very gallant490 people, courteous, and willinge embracers of all arts and sciences; making 482 many countries: slightly compressed. L’Epitome has “plusieurs païs & provinces” (86v). 483 or: ET appears to have written “of” and then amended it. 484 Ardena: L’Epitome has “Ardeuil” (86v). 485 which he brought about by his nephew: L’Epitome has “& ce de la part de son neveu” (86v). 486 Muscazin: L’Epitome has “Musa Cazin” (86v). 487 tooke: At the end of the word there is one more letter, which ET has stricken; the letter cannot be made out. 488 monach: reading uncertain: may be “monarh.” Cf. “monarhy” in ET ’s “Turkie” (48v). 489 againste the Turkes for the religion of Mahomet whom the call heretiques: i.e., “the[y],” the Persians, call the Turks “heretiques.” 490 gallant: L’Epitome has “brave” (86v).
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greate accompte of nobilitie: in which pointe they differ much from the Turkes who make as much reckoninge of a clowne (in respecte of his birth as of a gentleman).491 There is alsoe in this charte contained the Ile of ORMUS, which is an absolute kingdome of it selfe, commaundinge almoste all the Coastes of the Persian Sea. It is a country of it selfe somewhat poore & barren, but there is a marchant towne the greatest in all the Sea called after the name of the Ile which maketh it abounde in all thinges.492 It is soe faire and delectable493 that the inhabitans saye by way of a common proverb: If the world weare a ring the towne of Ornus should be the stone thereof. [48v] TURKIE494 You here behoulde the mightie495 Monarhy of the Turkes, which hath bene soe enlarged to this greatenesse, by our intestine warrs & cruel dissentions,496 within the space of lesse then 300 yeares. And that by 13 princes the first of whom was one Othoman (sonne to a Turke, called Zichie) a man of obscure parentage, and of slender reputacion but of greate understanding[,] and very experte497 in Martiall feates. For that reason all his successours would be named Othomans. He tooke in the space of that 28 yeare which he raigned. Bithinia, Cappadocia[.] His sonne Orchanes added the famous towne of Prusa, wch he tooke by assaulte, and made it the Capitall towne of all his Empire. Amurathes the sonne of Orchanes was the firste of the Turkes that from Asia passed
491 as much reckoninge of a clowne (in respecte of his birth as of a gentleman): L’Epitome has “estiment autant un villageois (quant à la race) qu’un gentilhomme” (86v), i.e., “value a villager (where race is concerned) the same as a gentleman.” 492 but there is a marchant towne … which maketh it abounde in all thinges: ET struggles for clarity here. L’Epitome has “mais il y a une ville marchande la plus grande qui soit en ceste Mer, nommée du nom de l’Isle, par laquelle elle abonde en toutes choses” (86v). Shawe’s equivalent passage reads, “but the cittie of Ormus is so full of trade, that there is abundance of every thing” (100v). 493 faire and delectable: L’Epitome has “plaisante & belle” (86v). 494 TURKIE: ET ’s title here is so ornate as to rival that of “Italye.” See Introduction. 495 mightie: L’Epitome has “terrible” (87v). 496 our intestine warrs & cruel dissentions: a slight elaboration on the original. L’Epitome has “noz discordes & guerres intestines” (87v). 497 very experte: L’Epitome has “bien experimenté” (87v), i.e., “well experienced.”
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into Europe, and seazed of Callipoli, Chersonsoe, Abidas, Philipoli, & Hadrianipoli. He tooke from us also the regions of Servia and Bulgana. His sonne Bajazeth tooke a greate parte of Thrace, and almost of all Græce and Phocida /but/498 being vanquished by Tamberlaine Emperour of Perthia (who brought him prisoner and made him serve in steade of a footestoole when he would goe up on horseback) he died in greate dishonour he being taken prisoner, his sonne Calepin undertooke the govermente, and vanquished Sigismonde. After him Mahomet succeded[,] who subjected unto himselfe parte of Esclavonia and passing over Danubius he added unto his Empire the Countrie of Macedonia and arived to the Ionique Sea. After him Ama/ra/thes the 2 possessed the Empire who subdued the Country of Epyrus, Ætolia, Achaia, Boeotia, Attica, & the towne of Thessaloni/c/a. After him Mahomet the 2 raigned499 who ruinated that famous towne of Athens; tooke the towne of Cosntantinople (the second ornament of Europ) by force the yeare 1452. Then he seazed of the Empire of Trapezond. He conquered the towne of Corinth, the Ile of Lemnos, Euboe, Mitylena, and the mauchant500 towne of Captia. Bajazeth the 2 tooke Naupactum [49r] Methona and Diracha. from the Venetians an spoiled Dalmatia. Zelimais woone the stronge and greate towne of Alcaria in Ægipte, and maistred all Ægipte; the towne of Alexandria & Damas. Solimon his only heire decked his Empire with the townes of Grierx Weissenbourg, Buda & Gran with the Ile of Rhodes, with the towne of Iula, and being encamped by Sigeth he died leavinge the goverment in the hands of his sonne Zelimus the 2. This sonne razed the said fortresse, even to the very grounde,501 the yeare 1566 and invaded all the Ile of Cypresse the yeare 1570. Amarathes the third threatneth us daie by daie to conquer all wch we have lefte us, and doubtlesse he will accomplish his p mise,502 if wee doe not shortlie c/e/ase warring among ourselves. 498 /but/: added in the margin, not above the line. 499 raigned: ET has written the “g” over another letter, possibly “l” or “h.” 500 mauchant: Reading uncertain. The second letter is blotted. ET may have tried to change it to “r” after first writing a “u” or an “a.” 501 even to the very grounde: L’Epitome has “de fons en comble” (87v), i.e., “from the foundation to the rafters.” 502 p mise: i.e., “promise.” The word is divided over two lines, but no hyphen or brevigraph is visible.
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[49v] The HOLY LANDE. The aunciente Pagan authors call this Countrie Palæstina, the Jewes call it the lande of Promesse, and the Christians call it the holy lande. This region containeth IDUMEA, JUDEA SAMARIA and Galyly. The Countrie of Judea is the better parte garnished with many good townes, amongst which the magnificente towne of HIERUSALEM the name of which is divulged about all the worde. In Galyly there is the mountayne of Liban, from which twoe fountaines springe the one of which is called Jor, thother, Dan. From these twoe fountaineas assembling theire selves in a certaine place commeth the river called JORDAN. The river running through all the holy lande maketh two lakes therin, and then yeeldeth it selfe unto the deade Sea. The which deade sea is of a very straunge nature, it is alwaies still (from thence the name is derived) and it is of a clammy503 liquor, like unto Clay,504 wch is called in Latin Bitumen, and according to Almaynes appellacion, it is called, the Jewes glewe, There is no kinde of thinge how heavy soever it be that will sinke downe into it because of this glewe which swimmeth therin. Alsoe there cometh a stinking smoake out of that gulfe, wherin the townes of Sodom and Gomorrah weare swalloued upp for their villanous & detestable sinnes. This is that Lande of Promesse of wch asmuch in the ould as in the newe testamente is soe often mencyoned, & that whch god haith elected and chosen505 out among all other regions to plante the trewe faith, and divine service, to the eind the fruites thereof might be tasted and extended over all the worlde, that they might atrive at heavenly Jerusalem wch is everlasting rest of wch the said principall towne is but the picture, as that somptuous and excellente temple of Salamon was the figure or representacon of the welbeloved spouse or Church. It is here that the Patriarches and Prophetts have anounced the comminge of our Saviour here he was made man, here he tooke upon him our humaine flesh, died for our synnes, &
503 clammy: L’Epitome has “visqueuse” (88v), i.e., “viscous.” 504 Clay: Reading uncertain. ET may have originally written “Caay” and then amended it. 505 elected and chosen: L’Epitome has “eslevë” (88v), i.e., “raised” or “exalted.” In emphasizing election ET may have had in mind her parents’ Calvinist leanings. See Introduction.
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[50r] rose againe from the deade for our Justification. It was here that his Welbeloved Apostles received the holy Ghoste, and frome hence they wente to preach the gospell over the wholl earth. Soe that this Country maie be called the holly land rightlie, & the histories written of these things wch sett her out506 ought to be redde & contemplated with greate devotion & reverence. [50v] NATOLIA or little ASIA This Asia, which the Turkes by their tyranny have reduced under their obedience, is exceeding famous, being allwaies well knowne, as much by the warres which the Romanes waged against it before they could subdewe it, as by the bloody seige the Greekes held before Troy the greate for the space of 10 yeares. She haith under her tuition507 many renowed Iles, as RHODES, CHIO, & PATHMOS where St John the evangeliste wrote his revelation.508 The Turkes call it, in the Greekish language, Natolia, which in English is East, which is all those regions, that the auncients named Asia minor,509 wch are Phrigia, Galatia, Bithinia, Pontus, Lidia, Capadocia &c: wch nowe the The Turkes call every one perticulerly by another name: and being willing to commend any marchandise or any other worke as to saie, yt it is good or well made: they will saie, It is Natolia worke: as we saie of precious stones that they are orientall; or, of good Cloth. that It is holland Cloth, and of the best Pines, that they are Boisle Duc pines, or any other such like thinges. Heretofore they spake greeke, all about this Country, but now they
506 the histories … wch sett her out: ET emphasizes the act of writing here with an elaboration of L’Epitome: “les histoires advenuës en iceluy” (88v). 507 under her tuition: L’Epitome has “sous sa dition” (89v). “Under her rule” is probably a closer translation. “Dition” is an unusual form in moyen français, but one meaning of “diteur” is “Dictator” (DAF ). 508 revelation: L’Epitome has “Apocalypse” (89v). 509 which is all those regions, that the auncients named Asia minor: A significant compression of the following passage in L’Epitome: “comprenant tout le païs de Constantinople, situé outre la Mer vers l’Orient, à sçavoir toutes les regions que les anciens ont appellé Asia minor” (89v). ET tends to consider geographical landmarks to be either redundant or uninteresting. See Introduction.
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speake the turkish language. All our chamletts, with wawes510 are made here in a towne called Angori seated in Galatia, wch the haire of certaine gotes, which are there somewhat lesser then ours, as white as snowe, their haire being longe & softer then silke, which they doe not sheare but pull of, as Peter Bedon511 saith. [51r] ÆGIPTE. This Countrie is limited Eastward by the redd Sea. Westward by the Country of B/r/echa, & deserts of Libia,512 and Northward by the mediterranean Sea. The most famous river of Nile runneth through this Country. The towne of ALCAIRA[.] heretofore called Babilon, and nombred among the greatest townes of the world is seated upon this river: & at the one einde of the extremyties thereof,513 the most renowned towne514 of ALEXANDRIA. The auncient authors as Diodorus Herodotus, Strabo, Plinie; have written marvelous strang thinges thereof. Nature haith shewed her marvelous effects soe well there, and men have made such strange histories thereof. There are such admirable workes therin, that if som of them did not remaine therin, as the Pyramides wch are hard by the towne of Alcaira, the Obelissas, Pillers, & images515 which from thence weare carried to Rome, would seme incredible that wch is written thereof. The Pyramides (because we will speake somewhat amply thereof) are larg and very high mountaines maid by the Kinges of Ægipte who weare called Pharaohs, to serve him as a sepulcher. That is the occasion, as I thinke, why the common 510 chamletts, with wawes: L’Epitome has “les camelots à ondes & sans ondes” (89v). What the French called “camelot à ondes [waves]” was usually called “watered (water) camlet” in English (OED). 511 Bedon: L’Epitome has “Belon” (89v). 512 Westward … Libia: Following this point in the corresponding French text is a description of the southern border, which ET omits: “du costé de Midy il a pour frontiere le royaume de Nubie” (90v). 513 at the one einde of the extremyties thereof: ET introduces a redundancy here that is not in the original: “& à l’une des extremités d’icelle” (90v). 514 the most renowned towne: L’Epitome has “la tresrenommee ville marchande” (90v). 515 images: L’Epitome has “Statues” (90v). In early modern England a strict distinction between paintings and statues was not made; both were considered “images.”
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people, call the Pyramides Pharaonyi. Those of Europ call them the garners of Joseph thinking that Pharaoh caused them to be built by ye Patriark Josephs Councell there to gather the corne of the 7 fruitfull yeares because they would prevente516 the famine (by him præsaged) of the seaven barren yeares: but it appeareth openly that they are deceived by the smalnes of the space or concavitie within, by the greate dispences of erecting them, and the yeares that they weare in building.517 Pliny writeth that the greatest was built, by 3060 persons who wrought at it 20 yeares continually[.] thother thre weare builte in 78 yeares[,] and 4 moneths. They are square [51v] monuments, alwaies growing smaller & lesseninge from the bottom to the topp, at the which there is a little plaine upon which one may goe. And if any one chaunce to shoote a crosse bowe there the arrowe will fall upon the selfe same Pyramides. By this you maie judge of the bredth of them; soe you maie of the height because it never letteth fall ye shadowe from it [52r] The Porte of CARTHAGE or TUNIS The towne of Tunis which is portraied in this table is very aunciente: yea even from the tyme that the glorious Romaines managed518 cruell warrs against the Carthaginians, of wch nowe there are but very few inhabitable ruines, and some broken water Conduites this Carthage is a treue mirour of the inconstancy of the Lordshippes, and govermentes of this worlde or to saie better a derision of men who repose truste and affiance519 vainely in humaine thinges, howe faire, stronge, noble pleasante, & magnificente soever they bee, for alwaies there cometh
516 prevente: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has not “prévenir” but “subvenir” (90v), i.e., “to provide for” (HCR). 517 the yeares that they weare in building: L’Epitome has “les annees qu’on en a esté empesché” (90v), which may be roughly translated as “the years for which they [i.e., their completion] was held up.” 518 managed: L’Epitome has “menerent” (91v), i.e., “led.” 519 repose truste and affiance: L’Epitome has “s’appuyent & fient sur” (91v), i.e., “rest on and trust in.” Used as a noun, “affiance” means faith, trust, or confidence (OED).
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a daie to tourne all topsy turvy.520 This magnificente Architecture,521 greate populositie, invincible force, & abundant riches wch made it pompous, proude[,] and respected able to compare with the principall of the world. & now522 you se it is reduced into ashes, accounted of as a vile thinge & of noe worth or valewe. [followed by a small graphic symbol] [52v] ABISSINA or the Empire of Presbyter John This region is by nature rampierd and fortified, Southward by the mountaines of the moone, and likewise it containeth within the frontiers Æthiopia surnamed the Troglodittan Country, that region where Cinamon groweth and a parte of inner Libia, the inhabitantes are of a yelowish colour, and they call themselves Abyssines, or Abyssinians & their prince Acegue, and Neguz, that is to saie Emperour & Kinge. The mores call him Atichlabassi, and we Presbyter John523 he is esteemed not without greate reason one of the greatest monarkes of our tyme, and he professeth the Christian religion[.] they chainge their names (as it is the manner of the Roman byshopps)524 when they receive the Empire. here are a greate nomber of monasteries, as many of men as of woemen: but there entreth no woman525 into the monastery of men. The common People may marry twoe or 3 wives (according to the goods which they have to maintayne them) without reprehension, & divorce is alsoe permitted unto them. They are all circumcysed the woemen aswell
520 to tourne all topsy turvy: a pithy rendition of the French: “qui renverse le tout c’en dessus dessous” (91v). For echoes in Mariam, see Introduction. 521 This magnificente Architecture: In L’Epitome this is the second quality of ancient Carthage cited; it is preceded by “sa bonne situation” (91v), which ET omits. Otherwise this powerful concluding passage is quite an accurate translation of the French. 522 now: ET appears to have written “nou” originally and then amended it. 523 Presbyter John: See note 23. 524 of the Roman byshopps: L’Epitome has “des Pontifes Romains” (92v). The bishop of Rome, often called the “Roman pontiff” in 16th-C. English, is the Pope. 525 there entreth no woman: What L’Epitome asserts is more extreme: “il n’entre aucune femme ou quelque beste de sexe feminin” (92v), i.e., “there enters no woman or any animal of the female sex.”
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as the men, and baptized 40 daies after their birth. The names which they receive are all significant. They have a booke divided into 8 volumes, which they veryly beleeve was written by the Apostles assembled at Hierusalem, the contents whereof they perfourme very carefully. The nobilitie esteeme Cows flesh moistened with fresh blood very delicate, meate. Here silver526 is not ni use, but in lieue thereof they give fine gould, without coininge. theire salt is fitt to chainge for any other thinge, so is fish527 likewise There are almost all kinde of greate beastes, as Elephants Lyons[,] Tygers Ounces wolves apes & hartes. but F Alvaresa saith that in six yeares, there was never sene any beare, Conny, ferritte nor foxe.528 There are very hurtfull529 grashoppers the nomber of wch groweth sometimes soe greate, that the inhabitants are constrained to abandon their usuall dwelling & search out another, for wante of victualls caused by the spoile of these [53r] beastes. The towne of CASSUMO is here (which hertofore (accordinge to their chronicles, haith bene the habitacon of the Quene of Saba, & afterward it was inhabited by the Quene of Candace (who is mentioned in the actes of th’apostles) called as they thinke, Judith, who was converted then as they saie to the Christian religion[.]530
526 silver: L’Epitome has “L’argent” (92v), which can mean either “silver” or “money.” 527 fish: a mistranslation. L’Epitome has “le poivre” (92v), i.e., “pepper.” See note 243. 528 Ounces wolves … ferritte nor foxe: Of the eleven kinds of animals identified in these two sentences, ET writes only these four species’ names in her equivalent of Italic (see Note on the Text). The last three of these are inaccurate translations of the original: L’Epitome has “loucerviers, taissons … chardonneret, ny coucou” (92v), i.e., “lynxes (or ounces), hogs … goldfinch, … nor cuckoo.” See Introduction. 529 hurtfull: L’Epitome has “dommageables” (92v), which can mean “harmful” or “injurious” (HCR). 530 who was converted then as they saie to the Christian religion: L’Epitome has “par laquelle ils se disent avoir esté convertiz à la foy Chrestienne” (92v), i.e., “by whom they claim to have been converted to the Christian faith.” ET may have been confused by the ambiguous syntax of the original French, for there is no clear referent for the pronoun “ils” in L’Epitome.
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[53v] BARBARIA. Barbaria is nowe esteemed to be the better parte of all Affrica seated betwene the South and North531 along the Mediterranean Sea and themount Atlas Westward there is the sea wch maketh the Iles of Canaria, & of the Eastside is stretcheth almost to Ægipte. It is divided into 4 realmes or Provinces to witt. MAROCCO, FES, TELESIN, & TUNIS. It is a Country reasonable full of mountaines all alonge the Sea Coaste. At the bottom of the mountaines are many very faire plaines532 not wthout some little hills watred with many fountaines.533 It is very fruitefull in dates oranges, olives, figges, and all sortes of fruites, but there groweth not much Corne. The mountaine of Atlas is very could drie & barren[,] full of forrestes, and covered with snowe. But in the plaines, it is seldome soe could that the people nede to warme them by the fire. The inhabitantes are white or yellowe mores, stronge of body. The citizens are very experte in architecture and other sciences, wch you may easyly judge by their buildinges. There is no deceite amonge them they are good people, who doe not only love plaine dealinge but they shewe it by their workes keeping faith & promise to every one. But there is noe people more tormented wth Jealousie then they are, soe that they had raither die then suffer any shame by theire wives. They are very ambitious & covetous wch maketh them traffick over all the worlde. Likewise they are proud & cholorick[,] not puttinge up easyly any wronge wch is done unto them therfore you shall very seldom passe through the streates, when you shall not see twoe or 3 beatinge one another with their fists. The534 531 betwene the South and North: L’Epitome has “entre Septentrion & Midy” (93v), i.e., “between the North and the South,” which gives the entire sentence a clearer parallel structure. 532 many very faire plaines: L’Epitome has “force plaines de longue estenduë” (93v). 533 fountaines: slightly compressed. L’Epitome has “fontaines & ruisseaux” (93v). These little shortcuts may reflect ET ’s eagerness to finish. 534 The: This word is close to the right margin in the manuscript; up until this point ET has been following her standard practice of observing a strict left margin and using hyphens if necessary to take each line as close to the right margin as possible. However, the subsequent lines of this transcription show ET ’s original formatting, centring each progressively shorter line in order to draw the text gradually narrower as she draws her work to an end. The first centred line, beginning with “Citizens,” is only very slightly indented on either side from ET ’s margins.
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Citizens535 are more frendlie, patiente, fearing god & of good life; but they are soe simple that they will easyly beleeve any thinge that is tould them; although it weare an impossible thinge. To con= clude, it is a good people, but dull & of noe quick witt. [small graphic symbol]
535 Citizens: L’Epitome has “villageois.” A distinction between a more combative merchant class and these “villageois … plus amiables” (93v) is probably intended. Shawe makes such a distinction, asserting, “The countrye swaynes are better, more lovinge, and patient” (108v). However, L’Epitome does not specify which inhabitants of Barbaria are given to fisticuffs, identifying this trait as a characteristic of the “people.” This may explain why ET did not feel it necessary to translate “villageois” more specifically.
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appendix a Summary of All French Editions of Ortelius Printed by 1602
Bibliographical No.
Size and title
Year published
City and publisher
No. of maps
KAN, 31:301
folio
1572
Antwerp, van Diest
53
KAN, 31:311
folio
1574
Antwerp, van Diest
69
KAN, 31:321
folio
1582
Antwerp, van Diest
93*
KAN, 31:331
folio
1587
Antwerp, Plantin
112
KAN, 31:351
folio
1598
Antwerp, Plantin
119
* Although this is close to being the right number of maps for Elizabeth, the particular maps in KAN, 31:321 correspond poorly to those described in the Mirror. Maps found in KAN, 31:321 but which are not found in KAN, 332:01/332:02 and are not described in ET ’s Mirror include “Espaigne Neuve” (6), “La Comté de Mansveldt” (42), and “Le Territoire de Cremone” (62). Maps found in KAN, 332:01/332:02 and described in ET ’s Mirror but which are not found in KAN, 31:321 include “Tercera” (9), “Valence” (13), and “Brandebourg” (49). Furthermore, because this is a folio edition the map sheets are much larger than those found in any of the epitomes, and several contain more than one map to the page; as a result the total number of maps found in this edition far exceeds ninety-three.
226
Appendix A
Bibliographical No.
Size and title
KAN, 331:11
Year published
City and publisher
No. of maps
Le Miroir du Monde 1579 octavo Map size c. 8 x 11 cm
Antwerp, Galle
72
KAN, 331:112
Le Miroir du Monde 1583 octavo Map size c. 8 x 11 cm
Antwerp, Galle
83
KAN, 332:01
Epitome du Théâtre 1588 du Monde octavo Map size c. 8 x 11 cm
Antwerp, Galle
94
KAN, 332:02
Epitome du Théâtre 1590 du Monde octavo Map size c. 8 x 11 cm
Antwerp, Galle
94
KAN, 332:03
Epitome du Théâtre 1598 du Monde octavo Map size c. 8 x 11 cm
Antwerp, Galle
123
KAN, 332:04
1602 Abrégé du Théâtre d’Ortelius octavo Map size c. 8 x 11 cm
Antwerp, Galle
126
KAN, 333:11
L’Epitome du Théâtre 1602 de l’Univers octavo Map size c. 8.5 x 12.5 cm
Antwerp, Van Keerbergen
123
KAN, 334:01
Le Miroir du Monde octavo Map size c. 14 x 17.5 cm
Amsterdam, Z. Heyns
80
1598
appendix B Comparison of the Contents of The Mirror of the Worlde with the Contents of the 1590 Epitome and the 1598 Miroir
Tanfield’s Mirror: Index to Map Descriptions
1590 Epitome: Index to Map Descriptions1
1598 Miroir: Index to Map Descriptions2
3 The Universall viii verso Le 17v Le Monde Worlde Monde Universel Universel 3v Europa 1v Europe 18v Le Nouveau Monde 4 Asia 2v Asie 19v Afrique 4v Africa 3v Afrique 20v Asie 5 The New Worlde 4v Le Nouveau 21v Europe Monde 5v Englande 5v Angleterre 22v Cadiz 6 Scotlande 6v Escosse 23v Espagne 6v Irelande 7v Hirlande 24v Portugal 7 Tercera 8v Tercera 25v Angleterre, Escosse et Irlande 9v Espagne 26v France 7v Spaine 10v Portugal 27v Bourgongne 8 Portingall 8v Andalusia 11v Andalusie 30v [sic] Limagne 12v Valence 29v Calais et Boulongne 9 Valentia 9v Cadis 13v Cadiz 28v [sic] La Gaule Belgique [Belgia Antiqua]
1 This index is based on the copy at the British Library, Shelfmark Maps C.2.b.3. I include the Latin titles of the accompanying maps where it seems helpful to do so. 2 This index is based on the copy at the British Library, Shelfmark Maps C.2.b.5. Although KAN provides the Latin titles of the maps themselves, I here provide the French titles of the accompanying texts to facilitate comparison.
228 Tanfield’s Mirror: Index to Map Descriptions
Appendix B 1590 Epitome: Index to Map Descriptions
1598 Miroir: Index to Map Descriptions
10 France 14v France 31v Le Pays Bas [Germania Inferior] Gascoine 15v Guascogne 32v Flandres [Flandria] 10v [Gascoine continued] Poitoue 16v Poictou 33v Le Pays du Franc [Flandris Liberae Territotium] 11 Britanye 17v Bretagne 34v L’Imperiale ou Pays d’Alost 11v Normandy 18v Normandie 35v Pays de Waas et Bevre 12 Anjou 19v Anjou 39v [sic] Flandres Maritime 12v The Countrie of 20v Le Pais de 37v Zelande Berry Berry 13 [Berry continued] Limaine 21v Limaigne 38v Walchre 13v The principalitie 22v Principauté 39v Zuydbevelant of orange d’Orange 14 savoy 23v Savoye 40v Duvelandt et Vorne 14v languedoc 24v Languedoc 41v Hollande & Provence et Provence 15 The Earldome 25v Bourgongne, 42v Le Fort Britannique of Bourgoigne Comte [Bur gundia, Com.] 15v The Duchie 26v Bourgongne, 43v Nort-Hollande of Burgundy Duché [Burgundiæ Ducatus] 16 Loraine 27v Loraine 44v Frise Orientale et Occidentale 16v Calais & Boulogne 28v Calais et 45v Frise Occidentale Boulongne 17 Vermandois 29v Vermandois 46v Grouningue 17v Picardy 30v Picardie 47v Outre-yssel ou Trans-ysselane [Transisalania et Veluania] 18 Alemany 31v Alemaigne 48v Twente et Benthem 18v The Lowe Countries 32v Le Pais Bas 49v Utrecht [Belgica]
Tanfield’s Mirror: Index to Map Descriptions
Appendix B 1590 Epitome: Index to Map Descriptions
229 1598 Miroir: Index to Map Descriptions
33v L’Evesché du 50v Zutphen 19 The Bishopricke of Liege Liege 19v Lucembourge3 34v Lucembourg 51v Le Pais de Geldres ------------------- 35v Haynault 52v L’Isle de Bomomel [Hannonia] 20 Artois 36v Artois 53v Brabant 20v Namur 37v Namur 54v Piel, Cvyc et Kessel 21 Brabante 38v Brabant 55v Horne 21v Flaunders 39v Flandres 56v Valquebourg 22 The Countrie of 40v Le Pais de 57v Territoire de Malines Guelderlande Gueldres 22v Zelande 41v Zelande 58v Partie Meridionale de Brabant 23 [Zelande continued] Hollande 42v Hollande 59v Hainaut et Namur [Hollandia] 23v [Hollande continued] 24 Friselande 43v Phrise 60v Givey, ou Gives 24v [Friseland continued] [Frisia] Westphalia 44v Westphalie 61v Lucembourg 25 [Westphalia continued] Ditmars 45v Ditmars 62v L’Evesché de Coloigne et Duché de Ivliers 25v [Ditmars continued] 26 Denmarke 46v Danemarch 63v Duché de Cleves 26v [Denmark continued] Saxony 47v Saxe 64v Partie de Westphale [Westphalia] 27 [Saxony continued] 48v Brandebourg 65v Alemaigne 27v Brandebourge 49v Pomeran 66v Autre Alemaigne 28 Pomeran [Hessia, Saxonia, Silesia, Suevia, Misnia] 50v Slesie 67v Ditmars 28v Slesia 29 Austrich 51v Austriche 68v Danemarque 29v [Austrich continued] 30 The Countrie of 52v Le Pais de 69v Pomerane Bohemia Boheme
3 Most of the text on this page actually describes Hainault.
230 Tanfield’s Mirror: Index to Map Descriptions
Appendix B 1590 Epitome: Index to Map Descriptions
1598 Miroir: Index to Map Descriptions
30v The Bishoprik of 53v L’Evesché de 70v Prusse Salsbourge Saltzbovrg 31 The Countrie of 54v Le Pais de 71v Livonie, ou Liflande Bavaria Baviere 31v Nortgou or the 55v Nortgoev, ou 72v Gazarie et Moscovie Palatiny of Bavaria Palatiné de 73v Le Pays de Boheme Baviere [Noricum] 32 Franconia 56v Franconie 74v Franconie 32v The Douchie 57v Le Duché de 75v Esclavonie of Wirtenberge Wirtenberg 33 The Earldome of Tirol 58v Tirol Comté 76v Le Pays des Svisses 33v The Countrie of 59v Le Pais des 77v La Partie Septentrio Swetland Suisses nale des Suisses et le Lac Leman 34 Italye 60v Italie 78v Ergau au Pays Des Svisses 34v Frioul 61v Frioul 79v Piedmont 35 The Douchie of Milan 62v Le duché de 80v Frioul Milan 35v Piedmonte 63v Piedmont 81v Italie 36 The Lake of Como 64v Le lac de como 82v La Marche [Larius Lacus] Trevigienne 36v Touscany 65v Touscane 83v Touscane 37 The Realme of Naples 66v Le Royaume de 84v La Marche d’Anconne Naples 37v Sicilia 67v Sicile 85v Le Territoire de Rome 38 Sardinia 68v Sardaigne 86v La Partie Maritime de Rome 38v Malta or Melita 69v Malte ou 87v Chasteau Sainct Ange Melithe 39 Corfu 70v Corfu 88v Corsique 39v Candia 71v Candie [Creta 89v Sardaigne nunc Candia] 40 Cipres 72v Cypres 90v Sicile 40v The Countrie of 73v Le Pais de 91v Malthe ou Melithe Greece Grece 41 Esclavonia 74v Esclavonie 92v Rhodes [Illyricum] 41v Hungaria 75v Hongrie 93v Cypres
Tanfield’s: Index to Map Descriptions
Appendix B 1590 Epitome: Index to Map Descriptions
231 1598 Miroir: Index to Map Descriptions
42 [Hungaria continued] 42v The Duchie of 76v Le Duché 94v Grece Oswicz & Zator d’Oswiecz et de Zator 43 Transilvania or the 77v Transilvanie 95v Natolie ou Asie 7 Suburbes ou les Sept- Minevre Bourgs 43v Prussia 78v Prusse 96v La Terre Saincte 44 Polonia 79v Poloigne 44v [Polonia continued] 45 Livonia or Livflande 80v Livonie, ou Liflande 45v The Northern 81v Les Pais Countries Septentrionaux 46 The Empire of Russia 82v L’Empire de Russie, or Moscovia ou Moscovie 46v Tartaria or the 83v Tartarie, ou le greate Chams Country Pais du Grand Cham 47 China 84v China 47v India 85v Inde 48 The Sophis Country 86v Le Pais du Sophi, or the Realme of ou le Royaume Persia de Perse 48v Turkie 87v Turquie 49 [Turkie continued] 49v The Holy Lande 88v La terre saincte 50 [The Holy Lande [Palæstina] continued] 50v Natolia or Little Asia 89v Natolie ou Asie Mineure 90v Ægypte 51 Ægipte 51v [Ægipte continued] 52 The Porte of Carthage 91v Le Port de or Tunis Carthage ou Thunis 92v Abissinne, ou 52v Abissina or the Empire of l’Empire de Presbyter John Preste Jean 53 [Abissina continued] 53v Barbaria 93v Barbarie
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Appendix C Complete Text of L’Epitome’s Descriptions of “Lucembourg” (34v) and “Haynault” (35v)
Lucembourg. Ceste Region estoit premierement une Comté, mais depuis elle a esté erigée en Duché. Ce qu’aucuns attribuent à Wenceslaus Roy des Romains, les autres à Charles le quatriesme : mais Vercerius estime qu’Henry le septiesme en soit l’aucteur, lequel a esté le premier Empereur de ceste famille. La situation de ce païs, depuis la forest d’Ardennes, autant que s’estend le nom d’iceluy, jusques à la Moselle (riviere bien renommée par les vers d’Ausonius) est limitée des frontieres suyvantes: de la France, Lorraine, Metz, Trieves, Namur & Liege. Ce Duché, comme escrit Guicciardin, a en circuit septante lieuës, & a vingt & trois villes ayantes murailles, hors mis icelles, lesquelles par feu & rage de guerre en ont esté depouillées: mille, cent & soixante huict villages, & aucuns chasteaux qui ne sont pas de petite renommée. La principalle ville est Lucembourg, une ville bien forte, mais d’une situation inegale : car en partie elle est bastie sur la montagne, & en partie en une vallée bien basse. La riviere qui passe devant icelle s’appelle Elzat ou Elze, dont on estime, la ville avoir esté nommée Elzenbourg (comme le bourg de l’Else) & par corruption Lucembourg. Le païs est pour la plus grande partie montueux, & bien furny de bois & forests; mais quant au reste, assez bien cultivé & fertil. Les habitans sont pour la pluspart hauts Alemans : mais la partie qui regarde la France, use des meurs, façons de faire & du langage François. Haynault. La Comté de Haynault est de grande estendue, & contient souz soy une Principauté, qui est Chimay, appartenant au Duc d’Arschot, & en porte son filz tiltre de Prince. A aussi plusieurs Comtés, telles que sont
234
Appendix C
Mons, Bouchain, Lalaing, Bossu, & autres. Plusieurs Baronnies, douze Pairs, un Mareschal, un Seneschal, un grand Veneur & grand Chambellan, & autres semblables Officiers hereditaires. Elle a son nom de la principale riviere qui l’arrouse, dite Haysne, & d’une diction Alemande AUWE (qui signifie pré ou prairie) pour estre riche de bonnes prairies & pasturages; comme aussi elle est, autant qu’autre region en toute celle contrée, de plaisants bois, forests, lacs, & fontaines. Les principalles villes sont Mons, & Valenciennes sur l’Escaut (où ceste riviere commence à estre navigable) ville tresample, & forte de murs & foffez. Mons est sur la Trouille presque au milieu de Haynault, ville tresforte & bien munie contre tout assaut de l’ennemy. Les citoyens sont riches, faisans grand traficq de Sayettes, lesquelles s’y tissent en fort grand abondance. Il y a d’avantage entre plusieurs autres Bavais, au marché de laquelle il y a une colomne de pierre, soubs laquelle, comme les citoyens racontent, se commencent tous les chemins, qui d’illee tirent droit vers les principalles villes de France. Lesquels chemins on dit avoir esté faits par le commandement & despens de Brunehaut, dont ils sont appellez Chemins ou chaussees de Brunehaut: mais à present on n’en trouve que bien peu de reliques & encores ruinées. C’est une region riche en mines de plomb, en pierres blanches & bleuës, en marbres de diverses couleurs, chaux vive, & de la houille, dont en use en lieu de bois pour se chauffer. A l’endroit de Barbançon se sont les plats de verre, dont on fait les verrieres, & est le plus excellent qu’on puisse trouver. Aussi y fait on toute sorte de vaisselle de verre.
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Index
Page numbers in italics refer to figures and appendices
Burghley, William Cecil, Lord, 30, 48, 49, 57, 61
“Alemany [Germany],” 80 Amsterdam, 8 Andrews, J.H., 30 Antwerp, 8, 26–7, 157n197 Arcadia. See Sidney, Philip Ascham, Roger, 102n115 Astell, Mary, 84 atlases. See cartography Aubrey, John, 99n77, 101n98
Calais, 81 Camden, William, 32, 37, 58, 85–6, 95n22, 99n67 Carlyle, E.I, 101n97 Carthage, 38, 82–3, 91 cartography in 16th-cent. England education, uses in, 3, 27, 31–3 use and understanding of, 3, 28–9, 30–3, 51, 56–7, 79, 104n133 See also under Cary, Elizabeth Tanfield Cary, Elizabeth Tanfield (Viscountess Falkland) biography of, 4–6 and cartography, 20, 21, 22, 27–33, 43, 92 education, 21, 31–2, 44–5, 50–2, 54–5 influences and mentors (see also Davies of Hereford, John; Drayton, Michael; Lee, Henry; Tanfield, Lawrence), 44–5, 50–6, 70–1 inheritance, 84–5 language acquisition, 18–19, 51–2, 86 marriage, 6, 33, 47–8, 50, 84 precocity, 17–19, 50–1 and religion: Calvinism, 21, 54; Catholicism: 6, 20–2, 35, 57–8, 61, 64, 65–9, 83–8, 92–4; conversion, 6, 20–1 and travel, attitude to, 6, 29, 45, 89–90, 92–4 See also Mirror of the Worlde
Balfour, Michael, 5, 49, 94n7 Barber, Peter, 28–9, 56, 61, 97n43, 98n51, 98n53 Bay Tree Hotel, 5 Beckingsale, B.W., 30 Bedford, Lucy, Countess of, 17, 52 Bennett, Alexandra G., 97n35 Binding, Paul, 93, 99n67 Bodleian Library, 95n12, 111 Bowen, Gwynneth, 50 Bowen, Karen, 126n40 Brackett, Virginia, 53 Bray family, 5 Brink, Jean R., 52–3, 96n27, 96n30, 103n125 Buisseret, David, 104n133 Burford, Oxfordshire, 4, 61, 111, 105n158 royal visits to. See Elizabeth I and James I Burford Priory. See Priory
244
Index
Cary, Henry (Viscount Falkland), 6, 47–8, 100n84. See also under Lee, Henry Cary, Lucy. See Life Cavendish, Margaret, 89 Cerasano, S.P., 99n73, 102n112, 105n153 Chamberlain, John, 47, 85, 97n39 Chamberlyn, John, 97n39 Chambers, E.K., 96n25, 97n39, 100n84, 100n88, 101n96, 101n98, 102n100, 102n101, 104n132, 105n158, 119n2 Charlemagne, 81–2 Charles I, 66–7 chorography, 50, 70–2, 77, 82, 85–6. See also cartography Clifford, Anne, 32 Coignet, Michael, 14, 62 Cole, Mary Hill, 49 Cooke sisters (Mildred, Anne, Elizabeth, and Katherine Cooke), 45 community, virtual, 92–4 conduct literature, 46 Corbett, Elsie, 101n97, 102n105, 104n139 Cormack, Lesley B., 31, 98n53 Crossley, Alan, 101n91 Davies, Sir John, 103n116, 108n207 Davies of Hereford, John, xxiii, 6, 52, 54, 103nn116–17, 104n129, 106n164 Demers, Patricia, 45, 95n16, 99n72 devotional texts, 46 Ditchley, 25, 57, 60 Ditchley Portrait, xvi, 57–60, 69–70, 72–4, 79, 81, 85, 89, 92, 104n140, 106n170 Donne, John, 108n199 Drayton, Michael England, as subject, 70–9, 81, 86–7 and ET: dedication to in EHE , 6, 17–20, 40, 52, 70, 76, 96n27; familiarity with work of, 18–20, 40; influence on, 41, 53–4, 70–2, 74, 77–9, 81; relationship with, 52–5 and Poly-Olbion, xxi, 41, 58, 70–9, 81, 86–7, 92, 107n196 Edinburgh Castle, 37 Edward II, 6, 53, 89–92, 106n169, 107n176, 109n210, 109n211 Ehrlich, Paul R., 186n337
Elizabeth I, 89, 91–2, 101n96 Burford, visits to, 5, 48, 57 and cartography, 57, 58–9 England, relationship to, in iconography and chorography, 59–60, 69–70, 72–3, 78, 81, 91 portraits of, 57–8, 59–60, 69–70 (see also Ditchley Portrait) as translator, 46 Elrington, C.R., 101n91 Elton, Oliver, 53, 96n30 Elyot, Thomas, 31–3 “Englande” (5v) compared to “Italye” (34r), 65 compared to other English translations of Ortelius, 61–4 title in Mirror, xviii, 65 English Protestant nationalism, 58–65, 70 L’Epitome (1588/90), 8–10, 12–16, 41, 64, 227–31 1588 and 1590 editions compared, 14–16 “Approbation” and “Privilege,” xv, 20, 88 Mirror, as source text of, 8–10, 12–15, 225–32 Essex, Robert Devereux, Earl of, 49 Eurocentrism, 80 Evans, Ifor M., 104n137 Ewell, Barbara C., 73–4 Falco, Raphael, 71–2, 78, 107n195, 107n196, 108n197 Falkland, Viscount. See Cary, Henry female liberty, 89–92 feminization of land, in chorographical works, 74–7 Ferguson, Margaret W., 4, 95n16, 100n88, 103n116 Finkelpearl, P.J., 103n118 Fullerton, Georgiana, 4 Galle, Filips, 8, 14, 62 “Gascoine” (10r), 65 Gentry, Marcia, 51–2 Gheeraerts, Marcus. See Ditchley Portrait Godfrey, W.H., 94n3, 109nn214–17 Goodere, Frances, 19, 96n30 Grant, Peter J., 186n337
Greville, Fulke, 50 “Greece, the Countrie of” (40v), 39–40, 80–1 Guicciardini, Lodovico, 126n40 Guttierez, Nancy A., 44, 104n128 Hackett, Helen, 17, 78 Hannay, Margaret P., 99n73, 99n77, 103n116, 104n128, 104n129 Harrington, Lady Anne, 17–18 Harman, Edmund, 5, 94n4 Harvey, P.D.A., 30, 98n47 Hatton, Sir Christopher, 50 “Haynault” (L’Epitome 35v), 26, 154n180, 154n182, 233–4 Hearn, Karen, 106n170 Helgerson, Richard, 58, 59, 71–2, 74, 75, 76, 78, 82, 107n193 Henrietta Maria, Queen, 66–7, 69 Henry VIII, 49, 56, 86 Herbert, Mary Sidney (Countess of Pembroke), 45, 52, 53–4, 99n77 Heyns, Peter, 8, 14, 62 Heyns, Zacharias, 8, 14 Hodgson-Wright, Stephanie, 95n16 Hosington, Brenda, 45 Howe, Nicholas, 83 Huddy, John, 104n138 Imhof, Dirk, 126n40 “Irelande” (6v), xviii, 65, 80 Italy: map descriptions, compared, 10–13, 64; in Mariam, 68; in Mirror, 57–8, 87. See also Rome “Italye” (34r) compared to “Englande” (5v), 64–5 title in Mirror, xx, 65 James I, King of England (James VI of Scotland), 31, 49, 66–7, 72 Jonson, Ben, 6 Katherine, Queen. See Parr, Katherine Keerbergen, Jan van, 14, 62 Kennedy, Gwynne, 90, 106n169 Klein, Bernhard, 27, 58, 85, 98n50, 98n64 Kooi, Christine, 97n34 Krontiris, Tina, 90, 103n116
Index
245
Lawrence, Heather, 104n137 Lee, Henry, 17, 25, 119n2 and cartography, 55, 56–7 connections at court, 49–50, 101n98, 102n100, 102n101 as dedicatee of Mirror, 16, 43–7 as literary figure, 50, 54–5, 100n81, 106n170 as patron of Lawrence Tanfield, 48–9 relationship with Elizabeth I, 101n98; granted Order of the Garter, 17, 57; as Queen’s Champion, 17; as Ranger of Woodstock, 49–50 relationship with ET, 44–50, 55–8; role in marriage of, 6, 47–8, 50 Lee, R.H. Melville, 48, 101n91, 102n98 Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of, 49 Lewalski, Barbara, 104n128 Life (biography of ET) Catholicism and ET, 20–1 date of birth, 94n2 education and upbringing of ET, 23, 50–1, 52, 54, 55–6, 84–5, 86 inheritance of ET, 48, 85 Lady Tanfield, 99n70 major life events, 6 marriage of ET, 48, 52 writing of, 94n2 Long, Mary Beth, 97n33 L[ongueville], T[homas], 102n112 Lord Admiral’s Men, 53, 70, 103n125 “Lucembourge” (19v), 26, 154nn180–1, 233 Lumley, Lady Jane, 45 Majno, Guido, 192n366 Mandeville’s Travels, 129n56 maps. See cartography Marcus, Leah S., 99–100n78 Marguerite de Navarre, 46, 100n79 Mariam, 6, 53, 106n164 compared to Mirror, 38–9, 44, 45, 66–70, 89–90 compared to Poly-Olbion, 77, 208n455, 220n520 compared to Reply, 66–7 Marriott, J.A.R., 97n38, 99n70, 101n90 McEachern, Claire, 74, 108n203 McIlwain, Charles Howard, 106n165
246
Index
Meres, Francis, 70 Miroir and Mirror, as names for map book, 20. See also Ortelius Miroir du Monde (1598), 8–13, 64, 227–31. See also Ortelius Mirror of the Worlde as holograph manuscript format, 34, 112–13, 135n83, 200n412, 222n534 graphic symbols, 43, 65, 82–3, 112; added to end of map descriptions, 6v, 15r, 16v, 21r, 21v, 23r, 24v, 26v, 27v, 31v, 32r, 32v, 33r, 33v, 34v, 36r, 38r, 39v, 40r, 41r, 42v, 47v, 52r, 53v; added to titles of map descriptions, xviii, 4r, 4v, 5r, 5v, 6r, 6v, 10r (“France”), 10r (“Gascoine”) inkblots, 35–6, 113, 207n448, 208n451, 215n500 insertions, unexplained, 133n77, 146n141, 167n249 punctuation, ET ’s attention to, 15–16, 26, 37, 113–14, 120n9, 132n71, 135n88, 137n101, 153n178, 162n228, 164n233, 166n244, 166n245, 169n257, 174n281, 175n288, 177n295, 179n306, 185n333, 190n359, 193n376, 194n384, 200n415, 205n439, 206n446 spelling: legibility, 113–14; amended in the ms, 115, 122n18, 126n41, 127n46, 133n75, 134n80, 145n133, 146n136, 156n194, 156n195, 158n204, 158n205, 159n209, 174n280, 186n340, 193n374, 195n393, 199n409, 202n423, 203n426, 204n432, 204n433, 205n438, 213n483, 215n499, 216n504, 220n522 stylistic features: brevigraphs, 114, 165n238; hand, changes in style or size, xxiii, 37, 112–14, 129n60, 143n124, 150n161, 164n235, 170n258, 171n269, 186n337, 197n401; majuscules, use of, xviii, 38, 113–14, 186n337; paragraphing, 114, 120n6, 121n13, 147n147; titles of map descriptions, xviii, xix, xx, 83, 106n164,112, 121n15, 125n33, 182n320, 189n351, 214n494 working method, 23, 25, 34–5, 113–14; abbreviations, as evidence of working
method, 114–15; revision, evidence of, 23 Mirror of the Worlde as material object binding and extent, 3, 43, 46, 111–12 damage to paper, xiii, xiv, xviii, 111, 113, 122n21, 124n29, 125n31, 125n35, 126nn36–7, 127n45, 127n47, 128n51, 129n55, 131n66, 132n73, 138n102 date and source: date of translation, 7–9, 16–17, 19; source text, 7–16 provenance, 111 Mirror of the Worlde as translation accuracy of, in general, 9, 22, 23–4 confusion or omission of details: geographical and cartographical, 23, 28–9; of borders, landmarks, and directions, 123n26, 133n74, 135n86, 135n87, 135n89, 138n103, 142n115, 148n150, 158n206, 167n250, 169n254, 170n262, 176n291, 181n315, 183n328, 200n414, 201n419, 203n425, 214n492, 217n509, 218n512; of place names, 120n8, 121n16, 122n17, 123n22, 123n25, 124n27, 135n84, 150n162, 151n167, 162n227, 166n244, 181n314, 206n442, 206n443 errors and omissions, 23–9, 36; in grammar or syntax, 25–6, 37, 114, 125n32, 133n74, 141n112, 153n177, 166n247, 187n343, 195n390, 198n405, 204n433, 221n530; with military subjects, 27, 29–30, 92, 130n61, 151n170, 155n187, 180n312, 188n347, 209n460, 211n471; with natural phenomena, 145n134, 149n157, 152nn172–4, 154n185, 160n216, 175n283, 190n360, 204n427, 222n533; with numbers or measures, 27–8, 124n28, 133n78, 140n109, 148n149, 151n169, 157n200, 160n214, 173n276, 175n287, 176n294, 179n304, 189n353, 189n355, 195n389, 200n411, 210n467, 211n471; with other subjects, 129n56, 130n64, 131n65, 136n91, 136n95, 139n107, 142n116, 143n123, 149n158, 152n172, 152n174, 153n175, 154nn180–2, 155n186, 156n192, 157n197, 157n199, 157n201,
Index
158n203, 163n229, 165n239, 165n240, 166n243, 178n300, 180n311, 182n319, 183n326;184n330, 188n345, 195n388, 200n411, 204n434, 205n437, 208n450, 209n457, 210n465, 219n516, 221n527; with religion, 211n475 non-literal translations, 33–40; as reflection of audience, 19, 34, 35, 121n10, 127n43, 134n81, 139n106, 144n125, 148n149, 157n197, 162n226, 166n242, 184n331, 191n362, 212n481, 216n505; concerning culture, class, people, or profession, 34, 129n58, 129n59, 139n106, 151n164, 157n197, 162n224, 162n226, 183n324, 183n325, 187n341, 187n344, 196n397, 199n408, 202n420, 202n424, 208n454, 208n456, 214n491, 214n495, 219n519, 220n525; concerning military subjects, 143n120, 214n496; concerning natural phenomena, 142n117, 145n134, 149n155, 158n208, 168n251, 174n282, 188n349, 189n350, 190n357, 194n380, 199n410, 207n447, 210n469, 211n475, 221n528; concerning other subjects, 140n111, 144n127, 155n186, 182n318, 182n321, 182n322, 195n394, 206n440, 214n493, 215n501, 217n507; poetic technique, and development of, 40–3;172n275, 179n305, 184n331, 206n440; concerning religion, 19, 20–2, 34–5, 144n126, 151n166, 164n236, 196n396, 211n475, 216n505; for stylistic effect, 25, 40–1, 120n5, 120n7, 122n20, 128n49, 130n62, 131n68, 136n92, 142n114, 151n164, 155n188, 161n222, 171n264, 182n318, 184n329, 192n368, 194n386, 217n506, 220n520; of title (Mirror of the Worlde), xiii, 7, 20–2, 24, 46; concerning women, 36–8, 39–40, 121n14, 128n50, 131n67, 137n97, 197n399, 208n451, 208n454, 218n513 translation from German, 134n82, 202n421 translation from Italian, 41–2, 184n331 monarchical absolutism, 71–2 monasteries, 83–8
247
Moody, Joan and Raymond, 94n6, 99n70, 105n158 Montrose, Louis, 60 Mueller, Janel, 99–100n78 multiplicity, aesthetic of, 71–5, 77–9, 81 Murdock, Kenneth B., 8 mythical places in the Mirror Friseland, 121n16 Groclande, 206n445 Prester John, kingdom of, 123n23 “Namur” (20v), 80 natural wonders, in map books and in Mirror, 79, 81 Nelson, Karen L., 67, 97n32, 99n74, 105n161 Newdigate, Bernard H., 52, 53, 96n29, 96n30, 103n126, 103n128, 110n224 Nichols, John, 101n93, 101n96 Norgate, Jean and Martin, 110n222 Norton, John, 62, 64, 105n160 Ortelius, Abraham, 15, 20, 32, 33, 37, 56, 79, 95n22, 99n67, 126n40; French mapbooks published by 1602, 8, 13–14, 32, 62, 225–26, 227–31 Oxford, Edward de Vere, Earl of, 50 Paget, Anne (wife of Henry Lee), 49 Paget, William (Baron Paget), 49, 56 Parker, Patricia, 108n200 Parr, Katherine, 46, 99–100n78 Parry, Graham, 98n59, 99n67 Pearse, Nancy Cotton, 48 du Perron, Cardinal. See Reply Perry, Ruth, 84 Peterson, Lesley, 95n12 Pilhuj, Katherine, 77, 106n167 Plantin, Christoffel, 8, 126n40 political ambition, 81–2, 92–4 Poly-Olbion. See under Drayton, Michael Presbiter John; Presbyter John. See Prester John Prescott, Anne Lake, 99n76, 100n78, 100n79 Prester John, 24, 28,123n23, 220n523 Prior and Benedictine Community at Burford Priory, 94n3
248 Priory, xxii, 5–6, 49, 55, 57, 83–4, 93 Raber, Karen L., 48, 104n131, 110n226, 110n227 Ralegh, Walter (Sir Walter Raleigh), 108n199 Ramsay, Raymond H., 121n16, 206n445 Reis, Sally M., 51–2 Reeves, Margaret, 23, 94n10, 107n175, 107n176 Renzulli, Joseph S., 51–2, 54, 102n115 Reply, 6, 23, 65–7, 69, 92–3 Rome, 57–8, 64, 66–9 Roper, Margaret More, 46 Rose, Mary Beth, 99n78 ruin, possibility of, 83–5, 91–4 “Russia or Moscovia, the Empire of” (46r), 39 “Saltzbourge, the Bishoprik of” (30v), 88 Sanford, Rhonda Lemke, 77 Sawday, Jonathan, 108n200 Saxton, Christopher, 57, 59 [Atlas of England], xvii, 58–9, 60, 70–2, 74–7, 85, 107n193, 107n196 “Scotlande” (6r), 79–80 Selden, John. See Drayton, Michael, Poly-Olbion. Seymour sisters (Ladies Ann, Margaret, and Jane Seymour), 45 Shakespeare, William, 31, 47 Shawe, 41, 62–4, 98n65, 105n160, 148n150, 148n152 compared to L’Epitome, 140n108, 142n117, 148n150, 148n152, 162n228, 180n310, 214n492 Sheep Street, 5 Sherman, William H., 55 Sicily, 106n164 Sidney, Philip, 50, 53–4, 99n77 Spieghel, as name for map book, 20. See also Ortelius Statham, Edward Phillips, 97n39 Stockmann, Alois, 123n23 Straznicky, Marta, 53–4, 104n128
Index Strong, Roy, 59, 78, 102n107, 102n110, 104n139, 104n140, 105n146, 105n148, 105n150, 105n152, 105n153, 106n170, 108n205, 108–9n207 Svensson, Lars, 186n337 “Swetland [Switzerland], the Countrie of” (33v), xix, 65 Symondes, Giles, 48 Symondes, John, 55–6 Tanfield, Elizabeth. See Cary, Elizabeth Tanfield Tanfield, Elizabeth Symondes (Lady Tanfield), 43, 47–8, 54, 101n90 Tanfield, Lawrence, 4–5, 25, 48–9, 54, 84 Theatre, Elizabethan, 47, 53, 70 Théâtre de L’Univers. See Ortelius Theatrum. See Ortelius Thesaurus Geographicus, 15 Translation as genre, 45–6 Tudor, Mary (Queen Mary), 100n78 “Turkie [Turkey]” (48v), 82 Tyacke, Sarah, 104n138 tyranny, 89, 202n.420. See also female liberty; monarchical absolutism Van den Broecke, Marcel, 79 Van der Krogt, Peter, 13, 14, 20, 95n13, 105n160 Vavasour, Anne, 48, 50 Vives, Juan Luis, 32 Walsingham, Sir Francis, 49, 56 Weller, Barry, 4, 95n16, 100n88, 103n116 Winner, Ellen, 51 Witherspoon, Alexander MacLaren, 104n128 Wolfe, Heather, 4, 21, 94n1, 95n16, 99n70, 105n163 Woodstock, 49–50, 57, 101n96 Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 50, 102n98 Wynne-Davies, Marion, 6, 99n73, 102n112, 105n153 Yates, Frances A., 50, 103n116