The readings for today beg similar questions as the last post: how can we truly understand Elizabeth's speeches if we lack access to the very elements--tone, gesture, mood, etc--that determine their meaning? Even if we can presume to have her speeches verbatim (which, of course, we can't), we are still missing crucial parts of the story. Dramatic elements are ruefully absent.
The thing that struck me the most was probably the description of Elizabeth's voice: one author (sorry for being vague, but I don't remember the exact reading!) said that her voice was exceptionally shrill and high-pitched. This goes so against the notions of strength and powerful speaking that I associate with Elizabeth, encouraged, no doubt, by various film portrayals of her character. The reading also pointed out an obvious fact I'd never considered: that only a few dozen people could actually hear any given speech, no matter the total size of the audience. For instance, Elizabeth's famous speech at Tilbury would have only been heard by the front two rows of soldiers, say. That makes the whole idea of a speech very confusing--it is a speech for the people, yet most of the people can't even hear it. What, then? Is the messaged relayed to them, and then they relay that message to the next people, and so on? like a game of telephone? (And we all know the hilarious inaccuracy that a game of telephone results in). Elizabeth as a character is becoming more and more mysterious the more I read about her.
The thing that struck me the most was probably the description of Elizabeth's voice: one author (sorry for being vague, but I don't remember the exact reading!) said that her voice was exceptionally shrill and high-pitched. This goes so against the notions of strength and powerful speaking that I associate with Elizabeth, encouraged, no doubt, by various film portrayals of her character. The reading also pointed out an obvious fact I'd never considered: that only a few dozen people could actually hear any given speech, no matter the total size of the audience. For instance, Elizabeth's famous speech at Tilbury would have only been heard by the front two rows of soldiers, say. That makes the whole idea of a speech very confusing--it is a speech for the people, yet most of the people can't even hear it. What, then? Is the messaged relayed to them, and then they relay that message to the next people, and so on? like a game of telephone? (And we all know the hilarious inaccuracy that a game of telephone results in). Elizabeth as a character is becoming more and more mysterious the more I read about her.
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