Queen Elizabeth

Burns 1
Andrew Burns
Mr. Rob Girard
AP English Language and Composition
August 31, 2008
On the Tilbury Speech
With the Spanish Armada, a seemingly unstoppable force, inching its way toward the shores of
England, Queen Elizabeth I delivers a rousing speech to her troops in the town of Tilbury. She molds her
argument both to reject any opposition to her position and to dispel any worr iesabout her capabilities. It
is through her command of diction, imagery and sentence structure that she succeeds in rallying her
troops to confront an imposing enemy.
Queen Elizabeth is very careful with her diction, making sure to emphasize the respect she has for
the public and especially her troops, praising her “faithful and loving people” and the “loyal hearts and
good-will of [her]subjects”. The Queen uses this sort of epideictic rhetoric to estab lish a rapport with the
troops, for, despite being their leader, the Queen is far removed from the daily trials of military life just as
the troops are far removed from the diurnal tribulations of court life. The Queen’s use of diction;
however, is not limited to the mere praise, but is also used as a means of diminishing, throughmeiosis,
the prestige of the enemy and inciting violent emotions. After claiming to have the fortitude of any king
of England, she goes on to “think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare
invade the borders …” This phrase is notable both as an example of exouthenismos and in its description
of the leaders of Europe as mere princes, inferior to the preceding “king ofEngland.” The word “scorn” is
very harsh sounding, and Elizabeth’s use of it here, accompanied by “foul” is an unambiguous expression
of contempt; it is both a verbal lashing and an appeal for the troops to think likewise. The description of
the Spanish leader as a “prince” and the mention of Europe are intended to accomplish two things: to
belittle the majesty of the King of Spain, making himmore human and making it easier for the troops to
fight fearlessly against the foreign invaders and to ignite the distrust many English feel toward continental
Europe

Burns 2
The Queen uses imagery to dispel arguments, excite emotion, and create confidence. In the first
sentence of the speech, rather than creating images, she anticipates and refutes them— procatalepsis. She
foresees thatmany would have images running through their heads of crazed citizens in “armed
multitudes” committing acts of “treachery” against the kingdom, acknowledges the arguments others have
made to that end and then dispels them, praising her “faithful and loving people” as the reason that she
can reject such predictions of calamity. She thus accomplishes two goals: to diminish the fear broughtforth by competing arguments and to appeal to the troops’ high opinions of themselves and their
countrymen. Elizabeth goes on to use imagery in an emotional appeal as she creates the image of herself
riding alongside the troops in the “heat of battle” willing “to live or die amongst [them] all.” Presented in
a climactic form, she ends with an image of blood dripping from her battle wounds. Suchimagery is
presented to rouse the spirits of the troops both toward the impending battle and the honor of fighting
with their competent leader. And then her final use of imagery is paramologic in nature for, mindful of the
troops’ reluctance to genuinely accept her leadership as a woman, she cloaks herself in the archetype of
an English king:
I know I have the body but of a weak and feeblewoman; but I have the heart and stomach of a
king, and of a king of England too…
She acknowledges her shortcomings but then creates an image that accentuates her strengths, or rather her
presented strengths, likening them to that of any other English king. This final use of imagery establishes
her position of authority while working toward a climax, beginning with the “weak and feeble” image and...