ABSTRACT
In “The Godly Woman in Elizabethan Iconography,” John King discusses the myriad ways in which Elizabeth, in particular, was associated with the Bible in various cultural productions throughout her reign. The point may be, to stage the princess Elizabeth, forget life and embrace the oft-told tale, the iterated image, the overdetermined stage prop, in her artificial persons as martyr and queen, and thus to create majesty from the base matter of the theater. Inhabiting the garments of one’s predecessor was a way of expressing the continuity of rule and the passage of power. In depicting the young Elizabeth, Foxe thus gives Heywood a template by which to materialize her as a gendered being distinct from other women and exemplary both in her virtue and her virginity. The most spectacular scene involving a holy book and the young princess occurs a bit later, however, when Elizabeth, committed to the care of Beningfield, with his permission writes a letter to Mary.
