ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the translations of Elizabeth Tudor. It explores the translation and the definition of sovereignty: the case of Tudor. The essay explores the complex interactions between the practice of translation and Elizabethan conceptions of sovereignty. From one perspective, translation into Renaissance English is an assertion of national pride and the power of the vernacular. The traffic between languages appropriates the treasures of other cultures for the benefit of the nation, and in the Renaissance, the verb to translate also meant to transport, or remove from one place to another. This study of one of Elizabeth Tudor's translations from French into English argues that translation interacts in complicated and unstable ways with political, religious, sexual and gender categories. By its very nature, translation equivocates. A translation is both English and foreign, both the work of the translator and the work of the author, a product of contemporary culture and, depending on the source, a product of a previous culture.
