Abstract
In this essay, I will show how James's position as monarch governed both the writing and the reception of his verse. Using James's previously ignored sonnet to Elizabeth, enclosed in a letter to her and so far as one can tell, intended for her eyes alone, his elegy for Sir Philip Sidney, printed in a commemorative volume, and the mini-epic, theLepanto, I will show that James always writes as a monarch and never as a mere poet. The first two poems demonstrate how James used (or, more accurately in the case of the Elizabeth sonnet, tried to use) verse as an instrument of diplomacy. For theLepanto, I will examine the parallels between the poem's (literal) ambivalence and James's foreignl religious diplomacy along with the resonances of James's decision to republish theLepantoas a separate piece when he became king of England in 1603. Insodoing, we will also see how the publication history of theLepantocontributes to the history of authorship and how James took advantage of the growing authority of print authorship.
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