Ralegh, Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, challenger, formal accusation, invitation, halter, combative, language, Italianate duelling
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37
challenger (attore), summoning Cavalier B, the defendant (reo), to fight.
66 In terms of the poem issuing a formal accusation against the body politic it is an open invitation for anyone wanting to pick a fight with Ralegh and, as in the case of the Italian captain and his adversary, the satire announces a spate of abusive accusations and counter-accusations rather than physical combat, of which the following extracts form a part:
‘The Answre to the Lye’
Courts scorne, states disgracinge
Potentates scoffe, Goverments defacinge
Princes toutch, churches vnhallowinge […]
such is the songe, such is the Author
worthy to be rewarded with a halter.
(ll.1-3 and ll.11-12)
‘Erroris Responsio’
Courts Comender, states maintayner,
Potentates defender, goverments Joyner
Princes prayser, churches Preacher […]
such is the Author, such is the songe
Retorninge the halter, Contemning the wrong.
Sr Wa: Ra:.
(ll.1-3 and ll.11-12)
67
These poems illustrate in miniature the reciprocated and paralleled rebuttals and insults that characterise libellous exchanges of verse. Such exchanges tend to blur the distinction between Weinstein’s Cavalier A (the challenger) and Cavalier B (the charger), reflecting Kaplan’s observation about the reflexivity of defamation whereby each party gives the other the lie. It has been suggested that Ralegh’s adversary Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, may be the respondent here and that the exchange represents the airing of court rivalries between them.
68
It appears not to have been recognised previously that Ralegh is the provocateur, however, and that he is using conventions which show that he expects a response to his poem. A moderating counter-thesis, also attributed to Essex, actually attacks Ralegh for using the combative language of Italianate duelling, and uses this as evidence that such
66 Weinstein (1994), p.205.
67 Latham ed. (1929), pp.160-1. Ralegh’s satire provoked more responses than those discussed here, or those catalogued in Appendix A. Some of these are listed by Latham, pp.152-8.
68
Latham ed. (1929), p.155; Steven W. May, ‘The Poems of Edward De Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford and of Robert Devereux, the Second Earl of Essex: An Edition and Commentary’, SP, 77 (1980), 1-132 (text pp.60-1, commentary pp.106-8).
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