LeeAnn in the English Renaissance

My ENGL 3430 Commonplace Book

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This illustration depicts the scene where the whole kingdom comes out and celebrates Redcrosse defeating the dragon and his engagement to Una.  

For this illustration, I use the SketchBook app on my iPad

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This illustration depicts the scene where Redcrosse, with his spear and shield faces the dragon guarding Una’s parent’s castle.  

For this illustration, I use the SketchBook app on my iPad

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These illustration depict the scene where Una takes Redcrosse to the House of Holiness where they meet Caelia and her three daughters Fidelia, Speranza, and Charissa.  The top illustration is of Fidelia holding the gold cup with wine and water in one hand and the book signed and sealed in blood in the other.  The bottom illustration is of Sperenza holding the silver anchor.  

For both illustrations, I use the SketchBook app on my iPad.

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LeeAnn M. English 3430.10 Fall 2015 Cavendish “The Convent of Pleasure” – Commonplace Entry

“My Name is Happy, and so was my Condition, before I saw this Princess; but now I am like to be the most unhappy Maid alive: But why may not I love a Woman with the same affection I could a Man?”

This quote jumped out to me because as a 21st century reader, I would had never imagined a 17th century writer of the English Renaissance era to include such a quote and not have her work shun by the greater public.  Cavendish probably avoided having her work shunned by writing it as a comedy with a heteronormative ending.  

Although The Convent of Pleasure is depicted as a comedy and it (disappointedly) ends with the Princess actually being a Prince, I will argue that this piece of English Renaissance literature can be considered queer literature because the main protagonist questions her sexuality and the social norms.  Lady Happy recognizes her growing feelings for the Princess surpasses the feelings one will typically have in a friendship or platonic relationship.  She knows society forbids same-sex romantic and/or sexual relationships, thus she only imagines herself as being an unhappy maiden.  

While Lady Happy was/is not a queer character, by her questioning her attraction to presumingly another woman makes this play eligible to be associated with queer literature.  A heteronormative piece of literature would not bother to have any of the characters question their sexualities.  It would pretty much be assumed that heterosexuality is the norm and all of the characters are heterosexual.  

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LeeAnn M. English 3430.10 Fall 2015 Cavendish “The Blazing World” – Commonplace Entry

“‘Tis true, answered they; but although they (women) are not admitted to public employments, yet are they so prevalent with their husbands and parents, that many times by their importunate persuasion, they cause as much, nay, more mischief secretly, than if they had the management of public affairs.”

This particular quote really stood out to me because Cavendish reveals the paradox of having women barred from the congregation and religious assemblies.  In the Blazing World, women are not allowed in the men’s congregation nor are they giving their own congregation to pray and devote themselves to God.  They must pray in the privacy of their own homes.  Additionally, the priests and governors are eunuchs because they believe women and children make a disturbance in the church and state.  

The quote reveals their fear of women persuading their husbands and parents’ choices regarding the church and state, thus allowing them to have a say in public affairs.  The priests are incapable of seeing women making good, wise decisions regarding the church and state.    

While women have no role in either the church or the state because the priests fear their influence on men, they have an Empress who has a large say in the matter of public affairs throughout the narrative.  Later in the narrative, the Empress does alter the laws of religion by building churches and making a congregation of women where she will lead and “instruct them in the several points of her religion.”

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This illustration depicts the scene where Redcrosse confronts the old man named Despair, exacting revenge for the death of Trevisan’s friends (whose body is unseen in this picture).

For this illustration, I use the SketchBook app on my iPad.  So far, this has been the most challenging scene to draw because I have trouble drawing people sitting on the ground.  

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LeeAnn M. English 3430.10 Fall 2015 de Montaigne “Of Cannibals” – Commonplace Entry

“I am afraid our eyes are bigger than our bellies, and that we have more curiosity than capacity, for we grasp at all, but catch nothing but wind.”

This quote jumped out to me because this is one of the few critiques about colonialism from a colonialist we have read thus far in the course.  However, it is not a critique arguing against colonization, but rather arguing that colonists do not have what it takes to colonize the New World.  To de Montaigne, colonists only have the capability to observe these beautiful and strange landscapes, animals, people and cultures, calling the Natives savages when Europeans have been doing equally as barbaric things for centuries.  

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This illustration depicts the scene where the giant Orgoglio comes across Duessa and Redcrosse by the stream (unseen in this picture), and eventually takes Duessa as his lover and throws Redcrosse in the dungeon.    

For this illustration, I use the SketchBook app on my iPad.

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This illustration originally was to depict Una meeting the knight, Satyrane.  But I drew him as more Satyre than human.  So this illustration could actually be depicting the preceding scene where Una is saved from Sansloy by the Faunes and Satyres.    

For this illustration, I use the SketchBook app on my iPad.

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LeeAnn M. English 3430.10 Fall 2015 Smith “General History of Virginia and the Summer Isles” – Commonplace Entry

“With a well-set countenance she said, ‘were you not afraid to come into my father’s country, and did you not cause fear in him and all his people (but me); and fear you here that I should call you father.”

This quote is arguably the most intriguing from the piece because Pocahontas essentially calls out John Smith on his actions as a colonist.  While he and the other English settlers believed that their arrival to the New World was for the greater good and gave her the chance to visit England and become the “civilized savage,” it still does not change the fact that Pocahontas’ family and tribe viewed the settlers as a threat to their home and life.  Even in this piece, Smith has the attitude of a colonizer who believe white English countrymen are the most dominant, sophisticated creatures in the world in comparison to the indigenous people of the New World.  Pocahontas recognizes his attitude, thus telling him that she should address him as ‘father’ and he address her as ‘child.’  

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This illustration depicts the scene where King Arthur duels with the seven-headed beast and the giant Orgoglio (unseen in this picture) in order to free Redcrosse for Una.  

For this illustration, I use the SketchBook app on my iPad.  I had trouble trying to draw Arthur’s pure diamond shield that gleams in the sunlight.

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This illustration depicts the scene where Redcrosse is dueling with Sansjoy and is about to give the fatal blow when the faithless knight suddenly disappears in a black cloud.  

For this illustration, I use the SketchBook app on my iPad.

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This illustration depicts the scene where Redcrosse (and Duessa who I ran out of space to draw) meeting the Queen of the House of Pride palace, Lucifera who proudly shows off her kingdom for the knight.  

For this illustration, I again use the SketchBook app on my iPad.

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This illustration depicts Una and the lyon/lion that spares her life due to her gentle beauty and innocence and becomes her protector on their journey to find Redcrosse.

For this illustration, I use the SketchBook app on my iPad because using Paint on my laptop was a frustrating task for me. And drawing I hear is suppose to be a fun task. Supposedly.

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Here is my attempt at illustrating the scene in Faerie Queen Book 1 Canto 1 where Redcrosse breaks off a branch from the tree named Fradubio who was once a man cursed by an evil witch named Duessa.

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LeeAnn M. English 3430.10 Fall 2015 Paradise Lost, Book 4 – Commonplace Entry

“Which way I fly is Hell, myself am Hell; / And in the lowest deep, a lower deep / Still threatening to devour me opens wide, / To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav’n.”

This quote really jumped out to me because I can easily imagine many people during the English Renaissance questioning whether it was possible for them to repent/redeem themselves after committing a sin, and viewing themselves as a sinner.  Despite how unnerving it is to say one relates to Satan, his doubt about being able to repent and be forgiven by God can resonate with many doubters of Christianity and/or other religions, especially atheists and agnostics of color.  What is the point in repenting when God will always see me as a sinner because of the darkness of my skin?

As a black agonistic feminist, it is one of the reasons why this quote resonates with me.  But other aspects about me (my gender, my disabilities, my sexuality) many times have made me view myself as an even bigger sinner than the average black person in either the English Renaissance era or in present day America.  However, unlike Satan who ultimately chooses to live up to his new name and continue with his evil plot to mess with Man and Earth, I rebel against the sinner label society has placed on me by accepting and loving every “sinful” feature about me.  I fly toward the light, toward goodness.  Because if I was as big and bad of a sinner God’s other children called me, He would have stopped me a long time ago.  And yet, I am still here.

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Here is my VERY poor attempt at illustrating the scene in Faerie Queen, Book 1, Canto 1 where Una, the Virgin Maiden runs after the Redcrosse Knight who is made to believe by evil sprites that she is not a chaste/pure woman.