Shakespeare and Elizabeth I: Icons and their Afterlives

Abstract

Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I are each potent cultural icons in their own right, but from the 18th century to the present day their afterlives have been intertwined and mutually dependent. Despite the absence of evidence of any encounter between them, and the scant and ambivalent references to Elizabeth in Shakespeare’s works, many different kinds of writers and artists have imagined a meeting, or patronage relationship, or even intimacy between them. This article surveys this joint iconography as it has appeared not only in historical fictions, historical paintings, and costume-dramas on film, but also in Shakespeare biography, Shakespeare criticism and the Shakespeare authorship controversy. It considers the role of this mythology in the formation of national identity in both Britain and America. It also briefly surveys recent critical work on the individual afterlives of Shakespeare and Elizabeth.