"On Monsieur’s Departure" is an

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

poem attributed to

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

. It is written in the form of a meditation on the failure of her marriage negotiations with

Francis, Duke of Anjou '' Monsieur'' Francis, Duke of Anjou and Alençon (french: Hercule François; 18 March 1555 – 10 June 1584) was the youngest son of King Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici. Early years He was scarred by smallpox at age eight, a ...

, but has also been attributed to her alleged affair with, and love of,

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, (24 June 1532 – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years. Dudley's youth was ov ...

. Elizabeth I was unusually well-educated for a person of her time and wrote several poems, which seem to have been based on her life, in an

era An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Compa ...

where

courtly love Courtly love ( oc, fin'amor ; french: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing vari ...

was the European tradition. "On Monsieur’s Departure" is a poem in which the

persona A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally ref ...

has fallen victim to unrequited love.

History

The poem was never published, but was found in a manuscript from ca. 1630, and titled "Elizabeth: On Monsieur's Departure". The connection with

is thus a matter of some conjecture.

Full text

Structure

The poem consists of three

sestet A sestet is six lines of poetry forming a stanza or complete poem. A sestet is also the name given to the second division of an Italian sonnet (as opposed to an English or Spenserian Sonnet), which must consist of an octave, of eight lines, succeede ...

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...

s, each in

iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambi ...

, with a rhyme scheme following the ABABCC pattern.

Analysis

In the first stanza, the speaker explains how what they may feel needs to be carefully shielded from the outside world: they may not ''show'' their emotions, even when those emotions are overwhelming. In the last line the speaker suggests that because of the recent experience in love they have changed from their former self into another person. The second stanza is about her unhappiness. It is her constant companion, she has never been able to make it go away, and she feels that only death could banish it. In the third stanza Elizabeth asks for less intense feelings, saying she is fragile. She wishes Anjou were less nice so that she could get over her feelings more easily. The fourth line means either that she wishes she could feel good or bad, which would seem to contradict the first line, or that she wishes she could show (and vent) these feelings properly, or perhaps that she could feel one extreme or the other, rather than both at once: high OR low. Finally, she says if she cannot be happier, she would like to die so that thoughts of love no longer trouble her. She doubts she will ever be fulfilled in terms of love. Whether she really wanted to die or said that for dramatic effect is unclear, and of course the overall sincerity of the poem is also unclear.

Comparison

This poem differs from the poem "My Lute, Awake!" by

Sir Thomas Wyatt Sir Thomas Wyatt (150311 October 1542) was a 16th-century English politician, ambassador, and lyric poet credited with introducing the sonnet to English literature. He was born at Allington Castle near Maidstone in Kent, though the family was ...

, during the same time period. While they both portray

unrequited love Unrequited love or one-sided love is love that is not openly reciprocated or understood as such by the beloved. The beloved may not be aware of the admirer's deep and pure affection, or may consciously reject it. The Merriam Webster Online Dic ...

they portray it in a different manner. Elizabeth shares the responsibility with her lover and even knows of his pain. Yet in, "My Lute, Awake!" the author leaves all the blame to the woman that he desires and does not wish her well.

References

Sources

* Applebee, Arthur N., et al. ''The Language of Literature- British Literature''. Boston: McDougal Littell, 2000. {{Authority control Early Modern English poems Elizabeth I