ABSTRACT
Because of the extent to which it aroused Elizabeth I’s anger, John Stubbs’s The Discoverie of a Gaping Gulf Whereinto England is Like to be Swallowed (1579) is something of a cause célèbre in Elizabethan studies. The pamphlet presents a series of closely argued objections against a proposed match between the queen and François, Duc d’Alençon.1 While the aging Elizabeth professed herself enthusiastic about marrying her ‘very dear Frog’, and was supported in this by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the marriage was violently opposed by several other privy councilors, including Sir Francis Walsingham and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.2 These recalcitrant courtiers ‘mobilized’ what Susan Doran calls a ‘widespread propaganda campaign’ against the controversial match.3 Of the works contributing to this campaign, only the Gaping Gulf provoked a drastic governmental retaliation: immediately upon its appearance, the pamphlet was recalled, a proclamation against it issued and its author incarcerated.4 The queen’s displeasure found a fuller expression still in the punishment visited on the unfortunate Stubbs and his printer, whose right hands she ordered removed.5 According to Ilona Bell, Stubbs’ misogyny and paternalism occasioned the vehemence of the royal response, so uncharacteristically in excess of the offense.6 No doubt the fact that Stubbs referred to Alençon as a ‘venemous toad’ did little to help his case.7
