ABSTRACT
It has been widely noted, with surprise, that William Shakespeare was oneof the few well-known poets of his time who failed to produce a tearful elegy and tribute to her memory when Queen Elizabeth finally died in March 1603. From him there was only a virtually audible silence, a silence so striking that it was commented upon by Henry Chettle:
Nor doth the silver tongued Melicert Drop from his honeyed muse one
sable tear To mourn her death that graced
his desert. And to his lays opened her Royal ear. Shepherd, remember our Elizabeth, And sing her Rape, done by that
Tarquin, Death.1
