ABSTRACT
As the sixteenth century drew to a close, England found itself in an anxious, if familiar, political position. The childless queen was approaching death, and her succession was in doubt, just as succession had been in doubt under the childless queen she had followed, Mary I. This concern, and the anxiety which it produced, is reflected in much of the literature of the period, whether religious, civil, or popular. The literature shows an extensive and peculiar engagement with the languages of sex and gender, especially as they relate to power and political intrigue. Indeed, one reason why sexually descriptive language is such an effective vehicle for deploying satiric aggression is that the language (especially language describing gender and sexual morality) was central to the regulation of all manner of social and political order in the Renaissance. This topic has received considerable critical attention in the past two decades, particularly from feminist, materialist, and historicist critics. As recent criticism attests, the social and political anxiety attendant on gender issues at the turn of the sixteenth century can scarcely be overstated. While much of this anxiety was the product of a conventional gender orthodoxy and institutionalized misogyny dating back to the writings of Jerome, Tertullian and before, it was intensified by the unique political circumstance of the time, i.e. the impending death of the aging and childless “virgin queen” Elizabeth and the necessary breach of succession which was to ensue. As Steven Mulvaney writes:
Although Elizabeth may have had “the heart and stomach of a prince,” she was still a woman ruling in the midst of decidedly uncertain times. Her rule, while popular and widely perceived as advantageous for the nation in many ways (not the least of which being that the queen was a protestant), was problematic. Religious and political orthodoxy, and indeed the natural order as it was popularly understood, demanded a king. The broken line of succession was another source of disquiet, one which must have been uncomfortably reminiscent of the bloody succession struggles of the preceding century.
