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‘A Dittie to the tune of Welsh Sydannen’: a Welsh image of Queen Elizabeth
Author(s) -
Harper Sally
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
renaissance studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1477-4658
pISSN - 0269-1213
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-4658.2005.00094.x
Subject(s) - welsh , queen (butterfly) , art , ballad , literature , praise , history , britishness , monarchy , classics , poetry , politics , law , hymenoptera , botany , archaeology , political science , biology
Elizabeth I was affectionately referred to by her Welsh subjects as 'Sidanen' ('the silken one') from at least 1579, when an entry in the Stationers' Registers licensed Richard Jones to print 'a ballat of brittishe Sidanen applied by a courtier to ye praise of ye Quene'. The text in question was 'Flee stately Juno' by the minor court poet Lodowick Lloyd (c.1545‐1610), and abounds with learned classical allusion. It survives in two main versions copied from the later sixteenth century, and was paired with a lost tune called Sidanen . The name was initially applied to any fine lady, but soon acquired royal connotations, apparently with covert reference to the queen's fondness for silk stockings. It also resonates with a series of other affectionate epithets adopted for Elizabeth I by English poets. The concept of Welsh Sidanen had a significant impact on literary texts in both languages: one free‐metre ballad in Welsh is an Anti‐Catholic text that rehearses a series of abortive assassination attempts, while four others emphasize a particular notion of 'Britain' and 'Britishness' that fete the Welsh aspect of the Tudor monarchy.