The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.0719  Thursday, 18 March 2004

[1]     From:   David Evett <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 17 Mar 2004 10:14:15 -0500
        Subj:   SHK 15.0689 Elizabeth told Essex

[2]     From:   Robin Hamilton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 18 Mar 2004 11:25:08 -0000
        Subj:   Re: SHK 15.0713 Essex told Elizabeth


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           David Evett <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 17 Mar 2004 10:14:15 -0500
Subject: Elizabeth told Essex
Comment:        SHK 15.0689 Elizabeth told Essex

John Gerlach of Cleveland State University, a friend who is a Dickens
specialist, says that Bill Arnold should look at Jack Capps, *Emily
Dickinson's Reading,* p. 109; he says that the reference is to "the
Countess of Nottingham whom Elizabeth couldn't forgive--for not
remembering the ring Essex gave her, the ring that might have softened
Elizabeth, spared beheading"   (I'm quoting John, not Capps, who may
also supply a C19 reference for the material). John notes that putting a
full stop at the end of line two clarifies the syntax.

David Evett

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Robin Hamilton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 18 Mar 2004 11:25:08 -0000
Subject: 15.0713 Essex told Elizabeth
Comment:        Re: SHK 15.0713 Essex told Elizabeth

Another attempt ...

 >Elizabeth told Essex
 >That she could not forgive
 >The clemency of Deity
 >However--might survive--
 >That secondary succor
 >We trust that she partook
 >When suing--like her Essex
 >For a reprieving Look--

Elizabeth told Essex that she could not forgive him.  However, the mercy
of God might exist [independently of her own refusal of mercy].

We trust (believe? hope?) that when her own time came to die, she
received the "secondary" mercy ["secondary", since God's mercy
post-dates human mercy or lack of it] from God, when she, like Essex,
begged for mercy [from Him].

{With the final couplet -- Elizabeth suing God (successfully?) for mercy
-- recalling the initial couplet where Essex (unsuccessfully) sued
Elizabeth for mercy.}

{This turns on reading the poem in terms of partly self-contained
couplets, with lines 5-6 grammatically inverted.}

Robin Hamilton

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