QUEEN ELIZABETH I
7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603
AH, SILLY PUG, WERT THOU
SO SORE AFRAID?
Ah, silly pug, wert thou so sore afraid?
Mourn not, my Wat, nor be thou so dismayed.
It passeth fickle fortune's power and skill
To force my heart to think thee any ill.
No fortune base, thou sayest, shall alter thee,
And may so blind a witch so conquer me?
No, no, my pug, though fortune were not blind,
Assure thyself she could not rule my mind.
Fortune, I know, sometime doth conquer kings,
And rules and reigns on earth and earthly things;
But never think fortune can bear the sway,
If virtue watch and will her not obey.
Ne I chose thee by fickle fortune's rede,
Ne she shall force me alter with such speed;
But if to try this mistress jest with thee,
. . . .
Pull up thy heart, suppress thy brackish tears,
Torment thee not, but put away thy fears.
Dead to all joys and living unto woe,
Slain quite by her that ne'er gave wise man blow,
Revive again and live without all dread;
The less afraid, the better thou shalt speed.
Written ? c 1570
Published 1960
pug = small dog; a term of endearment
Wat = abbreviation of Walter, ie. Sir Walter Ralegh
ne = nor
rede = counsel
speed = success/succeed
Elizabeth Tudor — or Elizabeth I Queen of England and Ireland as she would be known after ascending the throne on 17 November 1558 following the death of her Catholic half-sister Mary — was arguably one of the most well-educated people and possibly the most well-educated woman of her time. Not only was she taught to speak French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish as a child, she was also fluent in Latin and thought to have had an extensive knowledge of Greek along with a fair command of the Welsh, Cornish and Gaelic tongues. She made many translations from Latin, including works by Cicero and Plutarch, and boasted an extensive knowledge of music and poetry as her father Henry VIII had before her. She was raised, not as girls generally were in Tudor times to be seen but never heard, but as a Renaissance prince just as her father and half-brother Edward, who reigned as king until his early death in July 1553, had been raised.
During her own reign, the English language became perhaps the most expressive and precise language on earth, its many expert users helping to create what is now known as 'the Golden Age of Elizabethan literature.' The Queen was an active participant in the rebirth of English culture, serving as patron to the theatre company of William Shakespeare and as the inspiration for Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queen (1590–1599). She similarly inspired Walter Ralegh, who named the new North American colony Virginia in her honour, and had what was, at times, a very difficult relationship with her following his secret marriage to Bess Throckmorton, one of her ladies in waiting. This probably accounts for the teasing tone of Ah, Silly Pug, Wert Thou So Afraid? with its suggestion that Ralegh, here identified by the nickname 'Wat,' was mistaken to believe that she would ever be capable of truly doing him harm. That would be the task of her successor James I, who had the Queen's former favourite beheaded on 29 October 1618 at the behest of Count Gondomar, Spanish ambassador to England, who was outraged that a party of men commanded by Ralegh had violated a treaty between the two countries by unsuccessfully attacking a Spanish outpost in Guiana.
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