Comparative Drama, Vol. 34, 2000
"I would faine serve": John Lyly's Career at Court
by Derek B. Alwes The most common assumption about John Lyly's court comedies has been that they embody an unproblematic celebration of Queen Elizabeth and her rule. (1) Recent critics, however, have problematized such a reading by arguing that the apparent allusions to the queen are often remarkably unflattering. (2) Nevertheless, most interpretations of the plays still rely largely on identifying (or as the Elizabethans would say, "deciphering") references to the queen, whether positive or negative, as the basis for an understanding of Lyly's "meaning." I would like to shift the focus somewhat by looking at the ways Lyly's plays reflect upon his own career at court: the ways Lyly uses his plays to represent himself and his relationship to Elizabeth and her court. Those who have attempted to assess Lyly's courtly trajectory as a career tend to approach it from its endwith the justifiably famous "begging letters" in which Lyly complains about the queen's failure to reward his loyal service. (5) These are extraordinary documents, revealing both Lyly's frustration and the complex maneuverings involved in the pursuit of patronage at the court: Thirteen years your Highness' servant, and yet nothing; twenty friends that | |
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