Two hundred and sixty-seven years after Dante’s death Queen Elizabeth employs (possibly unwittingly) the four senses of Dante’s Il Convivio to enrapture her audience in her Speech to the Troops at Tilbury. This moving speech preserved in time by the memory of the auditor’s, who had the foresight to record her words to paper, shows not only Queen Elizabeth’s ease with rhetoric but also serves to show her dedication to her country, and thus, her people. Given that Roger Ascham educated Queen Elizabeth it may be assumed that she was well aware of Dante. However, if influenced at all by Acham it is likely she has a poor opinion of Dante’s work keeping in mind Acham’s opinion of all things Italian as portrayed through his definition of the “Englishman Italianated” (Logan 644). With that said Acham can mumble and groan from centuries afar as we apply Italianate Dante’s criticism to his prior pupil’s work (Leitch 185).

When Queen Elizabeth’s invigorating speech is looked at from the perspective of Dante’s four senses it is broken up into the following categories: Literal, Allegorical, Moral, and Anagogical (Leitch 187). The literal allows the audience to identify with the Queen and envision the future riches possible through fighting. The literal is the driving force stimulating the speech, for it is easier to become excited first about that which can be imagined in a concrete fashion than something of lesser physical substance such as the spiritual. Next, the allegorical comes into play. Queen Elizabeth’s speech references prior concepts about the repetitious role between the ruler of the country and God.  Another allegorical aspect to her speech is the way she channels her grandfather, King Henry, through her mannerisms, dress, and quite possibly, diction. Her actions and speech could very well be in a sense a remix of stories she had heard about her grandfather King Henry. The third sense is morality. The morality of Queen Elizabeth’s speech can be interpreted through her rhetorical referencing of god, her reminding the audience of their duty to God, and as extension their duty to her as a “divinely chosen” representative of God. The speech also emphasizes the morality behind honor as well as the constructed expectations she has of her subjects. In conclusion I will apply the fourth sense, anagogical, or the “eternal glory” promised the audience as her speech celebrates the spiritual body, or the “ideal and enduring political construct” (Logan 700) she embodies as a queen. This celestial connection created in her speech is the secret ingredient convincing the audience in the truth behind this belief.  

 The literal imagery within Queen Elizabeth’s speech is responsible for establishing a reference point to her more theoretical concepts. Dante explains what he means by the literal in his “Il Convivio” by stating: “…this is the sense that does not go beyond the surface of the letter,” (Leitch 187) a rather straightforward definition. In applying Dante’s invention of the senses, specifically the literal for this instance, the reader is able to easily discern what the elementary meaning of the speech is. When Queen Elizabeth says “My loving people, I have been persuaded by some that are careful of my safety, to take heed how I committed myself to armed multitudes,…I would not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people” (Logan 699). In this excerpt of the speech Queen Elizabeth is saying, at the surface (or literal) level that her people are good and kind. She says she trusts them with her life despite the majority of them being armed and that she would rather die than find out her understanding of her people is incorrect. In the next few sentences she makes a link between the commonest of them by stating that she will “live and die amongst you all”(Logan 700). This sense of equality and comradely can be taken at a literal level because she is indeed amongst her subjects at this point proving her dedication to the words. The literal meaning behind the next quote is a little more confusing, however its allegorical, moral, and anagogical usage makes it a prominent part of the speech, “I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too” (Logan 700). The literal meaning of this is understood as women’s bodies are weak, and being a woman, Queen Elizabeth is of this constitution one she does not try to deny. Instead she shifts the audiences’ attention from this admission to the fact that she is THE ruler of England and as such must have the constitution of a King as well. This is a much more allegorical and anagogical section to the speech, which will be discussed later in further detail. Queen Elizabeth also is sure to mention that her subjects deserve “rewards and crowns” (Logan 700) for their commitment to her God and her Kingdom. The literal image of the rewards is something tangible for the imagination, as crowns are the coin of England, not an existential thought.

Furthermore, allegorical critique of her speech moves into uncovering the aspects of her that relate to prior ideas and stories. The allegorical is the second sense of Dante’s four senses. As defined by Dante the allegorical should be “a truth hidden beneath a beautiful fiction” (Leitch 187). In this case it is a rather ugly truth hidden beneath the beautiful fiction. Queen Elizabeth, as previously mentioned, assured the audience that she would live and die with them, that she would “venter” her royal blood and it is this courageous talk of hers, within the ranks of the men about to go to battle, that weaves the beautiful fiction. The fiction that she creates is this idea that she is one of the people, that she will stand by them to the bitter end, indeed a noble and courageous thing for her to attest to do. However, the truth is: “In the meantime, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead,” (Logan 700). How utterly disappointing it is to find out her words only stretched as far as practicality allowed. I doubt the audience of the time felt this way, though it is a hard fact to ignore for today’s reader who, distantly removed from the passion and the trepidation of an upcoming battle, can note the discrepancies in her statements.    
   
The third sense, the moral sense, follows allegorical quite well, especially in this piece where Queen Elizabeth reinforces the concept behind the ideal moral subject by building up her audience to the point where they want to become exactly what she describes them to be. Dante notes the moral sense as being useful and beneficial to both the teacher and the pupil (Leitch 187). Queen Elizabeth’s manipulation of morality is especially notable in the diction within the speech, such as using “loving people” twice only to have it then followed up shortly with “loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects”(Logan 699). These flattering words of benevolence are used by Queen Elizabeth to remind her subjects what she expects of them, to remind them of what she expects their morals to be. An unintentional “moral” to the “story” may be to be aware of flattery. Another tidbit of morality found in Queen Elizabeth’s speech is in her emphasis of her trust in God and her willingness to sacrifice herself for her religion “to lay down for my God and for my kingdom and for my people mine honor and blood even in the dust” (Logan 700). It could be argued that she is shaming the people into fighting, for if their Queen is willing to go to battle so too should they. At the very end of the speech Queen Elizabeth says “…have a famous victory over these enemies of my God and of my kingdom”(Logan 700). This is a powerful ending and a not so subtle reminder to her people that not only are they fighting for their country, but that they are also fighting for their God.

The fourth and last sense of Dante’s is the anagogical. This sense is described by Dante as “beyond the senses” and only occurring when the work has a spiritual sense to it and signifies “a part of the supernal things of eternal glory”(Leitch 187). I interpret this sense as the shiver one might get down the back from a particularly moving section of writing. A shiver that is an involuntary acknowledgement that there is more to the world than we can imagine; and that when we come into contact with just the smallest piece of that expanse, we are privy to a glance at the universe in its interminable grandeur. Does Queen Elizabeth succeed in this? I am sure she would be flattered to be categorized as one of the few and possibly even think it her right. But mainly, I believe when she delivered it on August 9, 1588 amidst her people in Tilbury with the impending threat of the Spanish Armada, noted with every fleck of a wave on the shore, that it was anagogical, that it measured up in a way which time could not preserve (Logan 699). I believe this because history shows the power (or luck) of her words “we shall shortly have a famous victory over these enemies of my God and of my Kingdom” (Logan 100).
 
 
Works Cited

Logan, George M., Stephen Greenblatt, and Barbara K. Lewalski. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print.

Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2010. Print.
 

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