securely Protestant realm, Elizabeth had every reason
to believe that she was “on top” and would remain
there. During the reign of her Roman Catholic half sis-
ter, however, Elizabeth’s position was precarious. Even
though the “wresting, wavering state” (l. 1) of Fortune
had caused Elizabeth’s “wit”—mind or attitude—to be
troubled and burdened with cares, she can now “bear”
(l. 4) to be in a place where joy was once “quite fl own”
(1. 4). Line 3 has a lovely pun on the word witness. A
witness is someone who sees an action and can attest
to the circumstances surrounding that action. As a
prisoner, Elizabeth can certainly “witness” her circum-
stances in the prison. But witness also plays on wit, the
last word in line 2. Mind can be a synonym for wit in
that line, and thus witness can be read as “mind-ness,”
or “quality of mind,” so that the line can mean it is the
prisoner’s quality of mind that allows her now to be
able to bear the confi nes of her prison.
The rest of the poem continues in couplets rather
than the abab rhyme of the fi rst four lines. Even though
the prisoner may have told Fortune in the fi rst four
lines that she has found a way to accommodate herself
to her imprisonment, the next four lines are the pris-
oner’s accusations against Fortune for allowing her to
be incarcerated while the guilty go free. Elizabeth
accuses Fortune of “loosing” (l. 5)—letting go—the
guilty from “lands where innocents were enclosed” (l.
6). The “lands” in this case would be England. How-
ever, “lands” may be a misprint for “bands,” so the line
would mean that Fortune loosed the bands—manacles
or ropes—that bound the guilty. The next couplet
accused Fortune of causing “the guiltless to be reserved”
(l. 7) in prison while freeing “those” (l. 8), presumably
the guilty, who “had well deserved” (l. 7) death.
In the fi nal couplet, Elizabeth comes to a resolution
of the situation in her own mind that involves God
rather than a fi ckle, unpredictable fortune. She realizes
that nothing can be done now, while she is confi ned (l.
9), “So God grant to my foes as they have thought” (l.
10). Again, these two lines can be read in various ways,
especially given the fact that “thought” may actually
have been “taught.” Lines 9 and 10 can be read as “I
cannot do anything here, but will wait until God gives
my foes what they had planned on giving me.” Or the
line can be read slightly differently, and more despair-
ingly, as “I cannot do anything here, so God must be
granting my foes what they thought they would have
by imprisoning me.” One could argue that a person of
strong faith, as Elizabeth’s writings suggest her to have
been, would think in terms of the fi rst reading. How-
ever, being imprisoned, especially when one believes
oneself to be innocent, can lead the most faithful peo-
ple to despair.
FURTHER READING
Elizabeth. 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, and London: Associated University
Presses, 2002.
Theodora A. Jankowski“WULF AND EADWACER” ANONYMOUS
(before 1072) The Anglo-Saxon (Old English) poem
“Wulf and Eadwacer” is found in the EXETER BOOK. A
19-line puzzle that is considered by scholars to be one
of the most intriguing poems in the Anglo Saxon cor-
pus, it has not yet been defi nitively interpreted. The
most common reading is that it discusses a love triangle
involving two men and one woman. The speaker is an
unnamed woman who is lamenting over the loss of her
lover. As the poem opens, the woman worries that if
her lover returns, her people will destroy him. She
mournfully cries out, “O, we are separated!” (l. 3), a
REFRAIN she repeats later in the poem. Her lover’s name
is Wulf, and he is far away from her on another island,
although whether he has been exiled there or merely
fl ed there is not clear. The speaker explains that she has
grieved long and wept much over the loss of Wulf, who
is no longer there to wrap his arms around her. Her
constantly alternating feelings of fury at his absence and
yearning for his presence have caused the speaker to
become sick and weak. She calls out to the other man
in her life, Eadwacer, most likely her husband, promis-
ing him that Wulf will bear their “whelp” (their child)
away. The poem closes on a desolate note: The speaker
acknowledges that her relationship with Wulf was
never secure and so is easily destroyed.476 “WULF AND EADWACER”