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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