This study examines the sixteenth-century English Reformation background of Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book 3. Recovering this material is not simply a matter of opening a Bible, for various groups in the period, both Catholic and Reformer, interpreted its passages differently. The Book's four primary female characters, Belphoebe, Florimell, Britomart and Amoret, embody different aspects of the virtue, and these come into sharper focus in the light of this background. After a general survey of previous discussions of this topic, Chapter 1 examines the virgin Belphoebe and attitudes about celibacy and virginity current in sixteenth-century England, finding that neither Catholic nor Reformer disparaged this state, although in practice they differed dramatically. Chapter 2, considering the plight of Florimell, shows how her actions demonstrate that her chastity is, as these Reformation writers urge, a matter of the mind and soul, the springs from which virtue and its opposites flow. Her quality derives from such inner conviction. Next, Chapter 3, looking at Britomart, shows that Reformation writers generally do not speak of human love, even in marriage, in a way that comes close to Spenser's poem. However, when they deal with spiritual love, the love the soul is to have for God, they describe it in terms which sound very like those of passionate romantic love. The final chapter brings the insights of the preceding essay to bear on the closing cantos and Amoret's distress. Seen against this background, while she may appear helpless, her mind, like Florimell's, is constant and firm; she remains chaste. Indeed, she prefers imprisonment and even death, to surrendering to her captor. Like both Belphoebe and Britomart, what underlies her behaviour is her prior love for her beloved, which is the basis of her chastity, just as the Reformation writers understand it. The perspective on Spenser's poem provided by this Reformation material gives rise to new insights into the text

This thesis examines the literary representations of Jeanne d’Albret (1528-1572), Queen of Navarre. While this historical figure has already known many historical studies, this work seeks to highlight her importance in French literature, as subject, patron and writer herself. Concentrating on the theme of feminine exemplarity and its rhetorical implications, this study will show the evolution and transformation of Jeanne d’Albret’s representation in the literary world, from various epidictic pieces composed for her during her childhood, to the legacy of a woman of letters, to the celebration of a strong Calvinist Queen, and eventually to the shadowing of these successes in the eighteenth-century Encyclopédie. / Graduate

In 1839 Queen Victoria twice became the focus of a media maelstrom: In April, the publication of what came to be known as the Hastings Correspondence blamed the Queen for having taken part in the perceived persecution of Lady Flora Hastings. In May, Victoria's refusal to allow Sir Robert Peel to replace certain ladies of her bedchamber engineered Lord Melbourne's return as Prime Minister. Both of these events resulted in an outcry, both in opposition to the Queen and in support of her. Many historical works that deal with these events tend to recount them as either trivial anecdotes or as means to criticize Victoria's early years on the throne. However, some recent works have begun to rethink the condemnation of her actions. This paper reassesses Queen Victoria's role in the Hastings Scandal and the Bedchamber Crisis by examining how she was represented in certain London newspapers during these events. Instead of focusing on whether Victoria was right or wrong in pursuing the courses that she did, the emphasis is placed on how both the Tory newspapers, that opposed her actions, and the Whig newspapers, which supported her actions, sought to reduce the appearance of agency on Victoria's part. Papers of both political affiliations made constant reference to Victoria's youth, gender, and inexperience—all factors which also played into developing ideals regarding the roles of both the monarchy and women in the political process. The Hastings Scandal and the Bedchamber Crisis are placed squarely within the midst of these issues. The possibility of a young, unmarried, and female monarch making decisions independent of male political guidance caused unease among newspaper writers grappling with the early nineteenth century's colliding concepts of political reform and cultural ideals. / Graduate / 0578 / 0335 / lfidler@uvic.ca

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the main theme of Heptameron, by Marguerite de Navarre, is not love, as numerous critics maintain, but the notion of honour. This notion is the real unifying principle that indisputably confers its penetrating unity to the book. / If the kind of dialogue favoured by the Queen creates a polyphony which, at first, may seem destabilizing and hinder the coherence of the book, after reading it carefully, however, one notices that a certain number of guidelines relating to the notion of honour permeate the book. By identifying systems and ensembles, one discovers different sets of correlations--in connection with the notion of honour, that are connected by intelligible links and form homogeneous units that are completely meaningful. This reveals that, behind the obvious conservatism of the characters and members of the storyteller circle of Heptameron, the bivalence of the honour code, in the relationships between men and women, is challenged, even criticized.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 153 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-153).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 121-133).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 174-199).

Thesis (M.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / "September 1994." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Year of submission from cover: 1997. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 180-214).