The Queen's Voice.

The Queen's Voice: Elizabeth I's Christian Prayers and Meditations

Jennifer Clement

Vanderbilt University

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Jennifer Clement. "The Queen's Voice: Elizabeth I's Christian Prayers and Meditations". Early Modern Literary Studies 13.3 (January, 2008) 1.1-26 .

To tell the casual inquirer that you work on the writing of Queen Elizabeth I is, usually, to meet with the reply "I didn't know she wrote at all!" However, recent editions[1] of her work have gone some way to bring Elizabeth's writing to light once more. Elizabeth did indeed write, and she also published during her reign - not just speeches, but occasionally letters, and, most numerously, prayers. The queen published her Precationes privatae in 1563, just after recovering from a near-fatal attack of smallpox; and in 1569, a volume entitled Christian Prayers and Meditations in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Greeke, and Latine appeared. While this text is not marked with Elizabeth's name as author, the foreign language prayers it includes have been reprinted in the 2000 edition of Elizabeth's Collected Works, edited by Leah S. Marcus, Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose. In this article, I examine Christian Prayers as a text that positions the queen as simultaneously typical and unique, a humble sinner who is divinely chosen to rule England, who bows before no other human, yet who abases herself in front of God. While I agree with Elizabeth's recent editors that Christian Prayers is indeed the queen's work, I also suggest that regardless of the question of "true" authorship, this text contributed to the queen's public image in both domestic and international contexts, as reflected by the juxtaposition of English-language and foreign-language prayers within the volume. That is, whether or not Elizabeth scratched out these prayers with by her own hand is less important, ultimately, than the fact that they appeared to be authored by her. Christian Prayers and Meditations produces the effect of Elizabeth as author, the authorizing force behind the voice that calls to God in these prayers. As such, this text can be studied as an important contribution to the public image of the queen as both head of state and as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and as an indication of Elizabeth's lost reputation as a published writer.

The theological problem the queen faced - that is, the problem of representing herself as among the weak and humble of the world, as sufficiently imitative of Christ's own meekness and humility, in accordance with the religious reformers' imperative that suffering is a sign of God's favor - coexists uneasily with the claims for strength and authority that reappear in Christian Prayers over and over again. The need to appear submissive and meek in a religious context could confirm early modern stereotypes of gendered identity, the stereotypes that would severely limit Elizabeth's power and authority in the first place; yet to appear too confident might run the risk of appearing to defy biblical injunctions against women's speech. Christian Prayers and Meditations negotiates this delicate balance, actively participating in the religious debates of its time, and creating spaces within which the weakness of the female body can be transformed into strength through the mediation of divine authority. As I explore these issues, I begin by examining one of the English language prayers for its use of Elizabeth's maternal heritage as a guarantee of her Protestant bona fides, before turning to the foreign language prayers and their even more explicit claims to divine right and absolute rule. By doing so, I hope to show how Christian Prayers uses the language of weakness, paradoxically, to establish the queen's authority and her privileged relationship to God.