John Buchtel:
> Hopefully I haven't missed any prior postings noting the frequent
> deployment of figurations of Prince Henry as Alexander the Great in the
> dedicatory and memorial literature for the prince -- all the more useful
in
> the present context for the similar comparisons associating Prince Henry
> and Sidney.
I'm not familiar with that literature, but I wonder whether these Alexander
comparisons, in the case of Prince Henry at least, include a further
implicit analogy between James and Philip of Macedon? After all, James was a
king of a northern country that spoke a different and (to some English ears)
inferior version of the English tongue, who had come to rule the south as
well. In that context the suggestion would perhaps be that Henry, like
Alexander, was destined to extend his father's dominions further east - into
mainland Europe.
Even as I write this I'm aware of Fluellen's shadow falling across the
computer keyboard, and I can easily see how this analogy, pushed even a
little way, will collapse into absurdity (Anne of Denmark as Olympias? I
don't think so...). But might part of the reason for making the
Alexander/Henry comparison have been the opportunity to make an implied
Philip/James comparison? Assuming of course, that James would have been
flattered by that - another can of worms.
Charlie
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