in her days being “unquiet,” or disturbed, and her
nights allowing her no “rest” (l. 10). Tension and tur-
moil in days and nights, especially the inability to sleep
or the occurrence of bad dreams, were characteristics of
love problems. Cupid has his revenge on Elizabeth by
infecting her with lovesickness. She suffers so terribly
from the disease that she now “sore [very much]
repents” (l. 11) having ever said, “Go, go, go seek some
otherwhere; importune me no more” (l. 12). Thus, the
poem seems to say that the scornful attitude toward
love of the young Elizabeth was regretted as the queen
grew older. It suggests that, on a personal level at least,
the queen may have regretted living her private wom-
an’s life as a mirror of her public ruler’s life as the “Vir-
gin Queen.” This powerful woman ruler may not have
been threatened by a husband-consort who might think
that he, as a man, could rule better than she could.
Unfortunately, though, the private woman is left with-
out the companionship of a loving life partner.
FURTHER READING
Elizabeth I. Elizabeth I. Collected Works. Edited by Leah S.
Marcus, Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth Rise. Chicago and
London: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Hopkins, Lisa. Writing Renaissance Queens: Texts by and
about Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. Newark: Uni-
versity of Delaware Press, and London: Associated Uni-
versity Presses, 2002.
Marcus, Leah S. “Queen Elizabeth I as Public and Private
Poet: Notes toward a New Edition.” In Reading Monarch’s
Writing: The Poetry of Henry VIII, Mary Stuart, Elizabeth
I, and James VI/I, edited by Peter C. Herman, 135–153.
Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance
Studies, 2002.
Theodora A. Jankowski
“WHEN TO HER LUTE CORINNA SINGS”
THOMAS CAMPION (ca. 1601) This song was fi rst
printed with music by THOMAS CAMPION himself in A
BOOKE OF AYRES. It describes the poet’s lover, Corinna,
singing “to her lute,” a phrase that implies that she sings
while accompanying herself and that she addresses her
lute when she sings. The fi rst STANZA asserts that Corin-
na’s singing is powerful enough to revive the lute’s
“leaden stringes” (l. 2), punningly referring to the inan-
imate material of the strings while ascribing to the sing-
er’s voice an enlivening and invigorating infl uence. This
sense of the power of music is extended by the poet’s
assertion that when Corinna sings of mourning, the
“strings do breake” (l. 3) in a sympathetic reaction to
the song’s gloomy subject matter.
The second stanza makes explicit the implied com-
parison between lute and poet, who also responds to
the emotional expressiveness of Corinna’s singing. The
poet’s heart, for instance, has “strings,” just like the
lute. There is also a sense of sexual suggestiveness in
the second stanza. The “sodaine spring” (l. 10) of the
poet’s thoughts in response to a song of “pleasure” (l.
9) hints at sexual arousal, as does the assertion that
Corinna’s “passion” (l. 8) dictates whether the poet will
“live or die” (l. 7). This last line puns on the concept of
la petit morte, or death as sexual ecstasy. The poem tes-
tifi es to the power that Corinna has over the poet’s feel-
ings by comparing it to music’s power over the
emotions of its listeners, an effect enhanced by Campi-
on’s musical setting of these lyrics.
FURTHER READING
Lindley, David. Thomas Campion. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986.
Susan L. Anderson“WHEN WINDSOR WALLS” HENRY HOW-
ARD, EARL OF SURREY (ca. 1537) The uncertainty of
the date for this poem, fi rst published in TOTTEL’S MIS-
CELLANY in 1557, is mitigated by clues it provides that
correspond with incidents in the life of HENRY HOWARD,
EARL OF SURREY. Two incidents particularly resonate
within the emotional and geographical terrain offered
in the poem. The fi rst involves the 1536 death of Sur-
rey’s close friend, the duke of Richmond, also known as
Henry Fitzroy, the illegitimate son of HENRY VIII who
had been married to Surrey’s sister. The second centers
on Surrey’s 1537 imprisonment in Windsor Castle for
assaulting a powerful courtier in the proximity of Henry
VIII. Such an assault threatened punishments: both the
confi scation of the 21-year-old’s extensive lands and
goods, and, since the attack theoretically endangered
the king, the loss of Surrey’s right hand. While neither
punishment transpired, Surrey was eventually beheaded
by the king at the age of 30.
Surrey devised the SONNET form that came to be
known as the ENGLISH SONNET. Here, however, instead“WHEN WINDSOR WALLS” 463