I leave the Devo references as an exercise for the reader.

[angevin2]

All the Elizabeth talk on lj (here and elsewhere) has put me in sort of a historical mindset, so I thought I would post some of the Armada ballads I know. Most of them seem to be the work of Thomas Deloney, who is generally cracktacular. We lead off with one on the subject of a rumor prevalent in early accounts of the Armada, though it seems to

Comments

[17catherines]

Dear me. We really are rather fascinated by the whips, aren't we?

And I do like the way the Catholics are being equated with the Roman army. I'm having a bad week for Catholics, actually - I've just been reading an LJ post about the Australian citizenship test which asks whether Australian values are based on humanist, islamic, judeo-christian, or catholic values, as if the four (including the last two!) are mutually exclusive...

Clearly, Christianity sprung fully formed from the brow of Henry VIII...

[angevin2]

That Caesar article I told you about tries to make a similar case about Julius Caesar: Rome = Catholics = perversion and tyranny. Rome actually occupies a sort of vexed position in the Elizabethan imagination, though, as it's the site of empire (Good) as well as Catholicism (Bad).

[17catherines]

I've really got to get at that article (sadly, I'd have to go to the library in person, since for some reason medical researchers don't get electronic access through the library to the English literature journals...)

[tree_and_leaf]

That's really quite a scary degree of whip obsession our friend has.

I also love the reinvention of Boudicca (complete with consonant shift, interestingly enough) as a proto-Protestant heroine.

[angevin2]

Turns out that most women in England's really early history were proto-Protestant heroines. Including a few who were canonized by the Catholic Church. ;)

[tree_and_leaf]

Amazing, isn't it? Just goes to show the special care which Providence placed over England :)

[whatifoundthere]

so you could also sing it to "The Yellow Rose of Texas" or the Gilligan's Island theme song or "The House of the Rising Sun" if you wanted

... and "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing," unfortunately. That piece of information basically ruined Emily Dickinson for me forever.

That's one weird-ass obsession with whips that buddy has there.

[angevin2]

... and "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing," unfortunately.

*little "TILT" sign blinks on forehead*