07 November - Elizabeth Plantagenet (1466-1503)

I first came across Elizabeth of York's "irregular sestina" at night
in a small old anthology of women poets: The Distaff Muse edited
and compiled by Clifford Bax and Meum Stewart. It was there it was
called "a irregular sestina" and described as follows:

The sestina as an elaborate form invened by the troubador Arnaut Daniel
(twelth century) who was praised by Dante. The reader will notice that the
last six lines of the first stanza in the poem successively form the first
lines of the stanzas which follow. 'Twin' means break apart or separate into
two. 'A lusty pin' means a strong peg or a stable foundation. Not many poets
have declared 'My joys be double where others are but thin ...'


While it might resemblance a sestina because some of the words
repeat, it's actually to rhyme royal. Rhyme royal was a much favored
form of the 15th century (Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde is rhyme
royal). Rhyme royal has 7 line stanzas which rhyme ababbcc.

I could find only one other poem attributed to Elizabeth of York, and
not in a printed anthology but rather Chadwyck-Healey This is not a
poem about happiness I really do like it. Very stark

Eldest child to Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, she was courted by
Richard III, and then married to his enemy, Henry VII (Tudor); from
the time of her marriage, her history is a series of pregnancies and
then death. This is from the ODNB:

"Five children survived infancy: Arthur (1486-1502), Margaret (b. 29
November 1489), Henry (b. 28 June 1491), Mary (1496-1533)
and Edmund (b. 21-2 February 1499). Several other children died
in infancy, including Elizabeth (b. 2 July 1492) and Katherine
(her last child). But by the time of the queen's own death only
Margaret, Mary, and Henry were still alive. Arthur had died on 2
April 1502, and the news reached the court at Greenwich in the early
hours of Tuesday 4 April.

As to her literary pursuits, this is what the same article by
Rosemary Horrox says:

"Elizabeth played a full role in courtly pursuits. In her
more bookish pursuits she is again closely associated with her
mother-in-law [Margaret Beaufort]. Both women sponsored Caxton's
printing of The Fifteen Oes in 1491, and a few years later they
jointly gave a copy of Wynkyn de Worde's printing of Walter Hilton's
Scala perfectionis to Elizabeth's lady-in-waiting Margery Roos. But
if, in the sphere of literary devotion, Elizabeth can be seen as
Margaret's protege, in other areas she took a more independent line.
She rewarded the court composers William Cornish and Robert Fayrfax
for a Christmas carol and an anthem of Our Lady and St Elizabeth
respectively. Secular court revels were a large part of her life as
well, with frequent references in her accounts to minstrels and disguisings.
Hunting features less often, but she kept a pack of greyhounds
(presumably for coursing small game rather than as elegant pets)
and a goshawk. Less predictably, she had a hand in the
design of Henry's new building at Greenwich, where in 1502 Robert
Vertue was working from a plan devised by the queen."

The oblique style, indirect stance, language -- these remind me of
the famous Thomas Wyatt ("They flee from me that sometime did me seek
... ") Elizabeth connects the troubadour poets with the early
Renaissance. In The Distaff Muse, the editors tell us that More
wrote an elegy about her at her death.


Elizabeth's irregular sestina presents the woman's point of view: I've
wondered if she rejoices because she's not pregnant or didn't die in the
last pregnancy .



Ellen