Abstract
In the late 1570s, Sir Philip Sidney wrote The Lady of May to entertain Elizabeth during her visit to Wanstead, his uncle’s estate. At the center of this whimsical device is Sidney’s representation of Elizabeth as a superlatively wise queen: she is a “proba dominus doctor” [right learned lord] whose “mind is such, as wisest minds appal.”1 Not just idle panegyric, Sidney’s praise of Elizabeth is crucial to the action of the play. At the climactic moment, the queen must demonstrate her astute perspective by choosing between two suitors eager to marry the Lady of May. At first glance, Elizabeth’s decision in a fictional courtship dispute hardly seems to merit much attention. However, when the Lady of May cryptically states, “in judging me, you judge more than me in it” (30.12), she suggests that the decision does indeed have deeper implications.
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