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Elizabeth I as a Latin Poet: An Epigram on Paul Melissus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

James E. Phillips
James E. Phillips*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Extract

In praising the poetic talent of Queen Elizabeth the author of The Arte of English Poesie (1589) exclaims that she

easily surmounteth all the rest that have writte before her time or since, for sence, sweetnesse and subtillitie, be it in Ode, Elegie, Epigram, or any other kinde of poeme Heroick or Lyricke, wherein it shall please her Maiestie to employ her penne, …

Few examples of her work survive to provide a basis for measuring the relative amounts of critical judgment and expected flattery in this praise. To these few one more can now perhaps be added. It is a Latin epigram attributed to the Queen that was printed by Paul Melissus, the German humanist, poet, and musician, at the end of a collection of his own Latin poems entitled P. Melissi Mele sive Odae … Epigrammata, published at Nuremberg in 1580. So far as I can determine, modern scholars have not been aware of this poem or of the circumstances that make highly plausible its authenticity as the work of Elizabeth.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance News , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , Winter 1963 , pp. 289 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1963

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References

1 Puttenham, George, The Arte of English Poesie, ed. Willcock, G. D. and Walker, Alice (Cambridge, 1936), p. 63.Google Scholar

2 The title of the poem is mentioned incidentally in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, s.v. ‘Melissus’, as appearing in ‘Epigrammata 1580’. In the British Museum copy of Mele sive Odae which I used, the Epigrammata have a separate title page but continuous signatures and pagination.

3 ‘Not only, O Queen, do I consecrate to you my books, upon which the final touch is now placed. Whether it be Poetry, or Music's song, or I know not what lyricism, be assured that all is yours. Not books alone, I say, do I give and consecrate to you: my very self, goddess, I dedicate to your genius, and myself, a German from Frankish stock descended, I place beneath the royal yoke of service. Employ me as a slave, my lady, and be mistress to a free-born servant, who ever sounds your praises. Is liberty of so great worth to anyone, that he would refuse to be the noble slave of such a patroness?’ (J. E. P.) The poem, with some revisions but without the ‘Reginae Responsum’ following it appeared later in Melissi Schediasmata Poetica (Paris, 1586), sig. ã iijv. Cf. note 22 below.

4 ‘Your song is welcome, Melissus, most welcome your gift; more welcome is the sweet image of your spirit. But what cause so great moves you, what impulse urges, that you, a free-born man, desire to be a slave? It is by no means our custom to keep poets within narrow confines, or to restrict their rights even in the smallest degree. Rather, you would be made free, if you were a slave, your patroness loosening the bonds. But you are prince of poets, I a subject to a poet when you choose me as the theme of your lofty verse. What king would it shame to cherish such a poet, who makes us from demigods to be gods?’(J. E. P.)

5 The basic biographical account of Melissus is that given by Jean-Jacques Boissard in his Icones Quinquaginta Virorum lllustrium (Frankfort, 1597-99) and substantially reprinted, with additions, in Adam, Melchior, Vitae Germanorum Philosophorum (Frankfort, 1706), pp. 206–210 Google Scholar, the basis of the following account. Cf. also Taubert, Otto, Paul Schede (Melissus): Leben und Schriften (Torgau, 1864)Google Scholar, and de Nolhac, Pierre, Un Poète Rhénan Ami de la Pléiade: Paul Melissus (Paris, 1923).Google Scholar New details of Melissus’ English connections are given in van Dorsten, J. A., Poets, Patrons, and Professors: Sir Philip Sidney, Daniel Rogers, and the Leiden Humanists (Leiden and London, 1962).Google Scholar

6 … for all these thirty years … I have daily felt both [my heart and desire] more and more incredibly animated and inspired by the desire of beholding you in person’ (J. E. P.). ‘Epistola Ad Reginam’, Melissi… Poetica (1586), sig. ã ijv.

7 ‘Ad Elisabetham Reginam Angliae. Epos Primum’, Melissi Schediasmata Poeticorum Pars Altera (Paris, 1586), pp. 6-9. Cf. note 22 below.

8 ‘Ad Divam Elisabetham …’ and ‘Ad Eandem’, Melissi Schediasmatum Reliquiae … (Frankfort, 1575), pp. 5, 6.

9 ‘Am I of such worth, O Queen, that you willingly should ask concerning me where I do dwell? Am I of such worth, O Queen, that you should graciously take my verses to your heart; and therefore should thus bid great thanks to be given me, as if worthy of thanks?’ (J. E.P.)

10 ‘.. Accepisti quidem iampridem Schediasmata mea Poëtica, sed haec recentiora nondum ad manus pervenere tuas: …’ Ode Pindarica, title page, verso, quoted in van Dorsten, , op. cit., p. 212 Google Scholar, who notes that the dedication is dated July 31, 1582, at Augsburg. The imprint on the title page of the British Museum copy of the Ode gives the date as ‘A.M.D. XIIXC’, transliterated in the British Museum Catalogue as ‘1578’.

11 ‘Ad Georgium Gilpinum Reginae Angliae ad Comitia Augustana Legatum’, Melissi … Poetica (1586), p. 440. A manuscript version of this poem in Melissus’ hand, dated 1582, appears on the flyleaf of the copy of the Ode Pindarica to Elizabeth in the British Museum.

12 CSP Foreign 1583 and Addenda, p. 640, No. 690.

13 ‘I wish both Sidney and Rogers to be witnesses for my songs, and Gilpin, known to me in Augsburg, who will give my words to you’ (J. E. P.), ‘Ad Elisabetham Angliae Reginam’, Melissi … Poetica (1586), p. 165.

14 On the friendship of Melissus and Sidney cf. van Dorsten, , op. cit., pp. 50 Google Scholar, 96, and Buxton, J., Sir Philip Sidney and the English Renaissance (London, 1954)Google Scholar, passim. Wallace, M. W., The Life of Sir Philip Sidney (Cambridge, 1915), pp. 174–182 Google Scholar, gives a detailed account of Sidney's 1577 embassy.

15 Cf. note 25 below.

16 Cf. Nolhac, Un Poète Rhénan, p. 12; Rogers’ relationship with Dorat in 1567 is established in numerous poems by Rogers in the manuscript volume of his poetry owned by the Marquis of Hertford and described in Historical Manuscripts Commission Report IV (1874), 251-254. I am presently completing a study of Rogers' French connections based on this manuscript.

17 Cf. CSP Foreign 1577-1578, Nos. 61-187, and Read, Conyers, Mr. Secretary Walsingham (Cambridge, Mass., 1925), 1, 299.Google Scholar In a revised version of his poem to Rogers cited in note 18 below, Melissus gives the title, ‘Ad Danielem Rogersium Reginae Angliae Legatum’ (Melissi … Poetica [1586], p. 163).

18 Cf., for example, ‘Ad Danielem Rogerivm, reginae Britanniae consil.’, Mele sive Odae … Epigrammata, p. 57; letter, Melissus to Janus Douza, B. M. MS. Burney 370, fol. 79r; letter, Melissus to Abraham Ortelius, in Abrahami Ortelli … Et Virorum Eruditorum ad Eundem … Epistulae . . ., ed. J. H. Hessels (Cambridge, 1887), p. 174.

19 Cf. van Dorsten, , op. cit., pp. 58, 70Google Scholar, and note 13 above.

20 Read, , Mr. Secretary Walsingham, 1, 298–299.Google Scholar

21 ‘And when shall I see your Thames, and the proud palaces of London, and Elizabeth worthy of eternal reign, and so many brilliant princes of the Queen? O how divided I am within myself, and seem to be separated in two places! For in Italy, enviable to me, remains my body, but in England my heart’ (J. E. P.), ‘Ad Philippum Sideneum proregis Hiberniae F.’, Mele sive Odae … Epigrammata, pp. 58-59. As a matter of fact, Melissus planned, upon leaving Italy in 1580, to return home by way of England, but changed his mind after he was on the road and went directly to Germany ( Adam, , Vitae Germanorum Philosophorum, p. 208 Google Scholar).

22 ‘… nauigauit ex portu Deppensi in Angliam, offerens Richemonti Elizabethae Anglorum Reginae sua poemata’ (Boissard, Icones, quoted in Nolhac, , Un Poète Rhènan, p. 89 Google Scholar). The collection of poems is in three parts, each with separate title page bearing the imprint Paris, 1586, separate dedicatory epistle to Elizabeth dated Paris, August 1585, and separate pagination and index. The British Museum copy lacks the third part, which I have not seen, but the first two parts are continuously signed. The three parts are entitled, respectively, Melissi Schediasmata Poetica. Secundo edita multo auctiora; Melissi Schediasmata Poeticorum Pars Altera; and (according to Nolhac) Melissi Schediasmatum Poeticorum pars tertia. Given the imprint date, the volume which Melissus took to England would seem to have been a manuscript copy. That he had intended to take a printed copy is suggested in a poem to the Queen describing his anticipation of the trip: ‘Quid est, tuis quod orTeram Penatibus, / Emodulata nisi Schediae syntagmata chartae, / Recente cusa diligentius typo?’ (Melissi… Poetica [1586], p. 502).

23 Read, Mr. Secretary Walsingham, III, 196-197

24 Cf. Melissus' poem. ‘Ad Jatium Dousam Noidovicem.’, dated London, November 1585 (B. M. MS. Burney 370, fol. 69r).

25 ‘I learned with pleasure from your letter, my Hotman, that my gift to Philip Sidney pleased him; I would that it had happened to me to see him here; certainly my negotiations at court would have been more quickly and expeditiously completed had he been present. Now I intend to depart as soon as possible, that I may lose no more time and expense. God willing, I go directly to Calais, and thence to Paris’ (J. E. P.), Francisci et Joannis Hotomanorum Patris ac Filii et Clarorum Virorum ad Eos Epistolae … (Amsterdam, 1700), p. 339. Cf. also Melissus’ letter to Walsingham, dated London, February 19, announcing his departure for France and asking ‘that letters arriving from Sir Philip Sidney, his old friend, may be forwarded to him’ (CSP Domestic, 1581-1590, p. 307).

25 ‘I learned with pleasure from your letter, my Hotman, that my gift to Philip Sidney pleased him; I would that it had happened to me to see him here; certainly my negotiations at court would have been more quickly and expeditiously completed had he been present. Now I intend to depart as soon as possible, that I may lose no more time and expense. God willing, I go directly to Calais, and thence to Paris’ (J. E. P.), Francisci et Joannis Hotomanorum Patris ac Filii et Clarorum Virorum ad Eos Epistolae … (Amsterdam, 1700), p. 339. Cf. also Melissus’ letter to Walsingham, dated London, February 19, announcing his departure for France and asking ‘that letters arriving from Sir Philip Sidney, his old friend, may be forwarded to him’ (CSP Domestic, 1581-1590, p. 307).