ABSTRACT
Though a number of historians note early modern England’s regard of Elizabeth as an English Deborah, little study has been made which actively investigates Renaissance perception of this biblical character. Instead, scholars presume an audience familiar with the biblical heroine’s history, or provide cursory explanations of it themselves. When discussing Elizabeth as a Deborah, for example, Elkin Calhoun Wilson describes the character as a “Hebrew prophetess” (64) who
1 Jael appears in the biblical narrative to fulfill Deborah’s prophecy that Sisera will be delivered “into the hand of a woman” (4:9). Judith’s history is commonly regarded as an embellishment of Jael’s historical tale. See Susan Ackerman, Warrior, Dancer, Seductress, Queen: Women in Judges and Biblical Israel (New York, 1998), pp. 49-51. See also Nehema Aschkenasy, Eve’s Journey: Feminine Images in Hebraic Literary Tradition (Philadelphia, 1986), pp. 171, 172.
