By Heiner Badilla Sanchez (Fall 2022)
Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum translated as “Hail God King of the Jades (Jews)” is a mixture of several concepts put together through the lens of Emilia Lanier. This particular piece is important for numerous reasons especially within the context of the modern society we find ourselves flowing through on a daily basis. It has strong elements of religion, feminism, and women’s empowerment while also being regarded as the earliest piece of feminist literature produced in England. The notoriety that Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum maintains today is similar to that of when it was maintained in England, there are no exact records of the notoriety it received but given Amelia’s economic standing it is not difficult to discern that it was not her source of income. This isn’t to say that her work was not significant at the time or that it currently is not worth studying, the text is full of rich content that should not be ignored. The context this paper will be covering revolves around the themes of gender and religion presented in Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, the significance they hold over the piece as a whole, and what implications they have for the modern day.
Though religion is a major focal point of this piece, some background should be established regarding the author so as to enrich the rest of the paper via contextualization through the use of a comprehensive background. Emilia Lanier (1569-1645) was the first female poet in England to create a wide volume of feminist work. She was baptized as a child and held beliefs of Christianity, likely Catholicism or Protestantism. Though Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum had no discernable notoriety as previously mentioned, it is a significant collection of poems written by Emilia who lived all of her life as a middle-class woman in England. She had always been very dedicated to following the royal family and had seen the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and Charles I. Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum is Emilia’s first and only work ever produced, it is easy to see where the religious inspiration came from alongside the dedicatory nature of it to several members of the royal family at the time. A striking detail about the text is the origin of its name: it appeared to Emilia in a dream and she even dedicated a preface to explaining the nature of the name. This is vastly different from a majority of other authors who typically did not dream about the titles of their work. Though it sounds doltish, it perfectly captures part of Emilia’s voice when she wrote Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, it was completely natural for her, it was so natural that she had a dream about the title of her work. The essence of this text revolves around religion and is dedicated to certain royal family members, it serves as a defense in the name of women while also empowering those around her and criticizing the men who controlled them at the time. Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum through the use of gender and religion perfectly formulates an argument within the context of both dedication to powerful women and an appreciation for the natural world.
Though not extremely relevant to the content found within the text, the stylistic choice under which the poems fall should also be made clear. Emilia wrote a majority of Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum in prose but also incorporated an entirely new and unique kind of poem: a country house poem. Emilia is the first English writer to incorporate a country house poem into her writing, that particular choice aids in correlating Emilia’s writing and the natural world around her. During the dissection of her text, it is important to keep both her history and style of writing in mind even if they are not particularly vital as a whole to the analysis. Emilia did not receive any apparent recognition of Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum but it is full of extensive emotion, thematic complexity, and an unheard fight for equality between men and women. The next paragraph will begin the summarization of her poems which will lead into the dissection, a cohesive understanding of her text as a whole is needed for proper analysis.
Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum contains five poetic sections, one preface section, and one postface. Both the preface and postface and titled: “To The Doubtful Reader” which explains some of the context behind her poems and describes the process that she went through in order to name her text. It is a minor section at both the start and end that only serves the function of reminding the reader that there should be no doubt in her capability as a writer despite the conception of her title for her piece. These sections also created the foundation for which Emilia constructed the rest of her piece with her ideals and beliefs in mind.
The first major section of prose is titled: “To The Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty”. This entire section of her text dedicates itself to the queen and goes to extraordinary lengths to put the queen on a pedestal. Emilia makes several references to the Greek mythos as well as mentions concepts like fey and other supernatural phenomena. This is in a clear attempt to compare the queen’s qualities to that of numerous figures: “From Iuno you have state and dignities, from warlike Pallas, wisdom, fortitude; and from faire Venus all her excellencies” (Lanier, lines 13-15 in “To The Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty”). Emilia does this for more than one reason, she not only seeks to prove her worth as a female writer but also wants to complement and show her dedication to the queen. She compares the queen’s attributes to being akin to literal gods and goddesses, in her mind, there is no one that is as perfect as the queen. This serves to both make Emilia come off as a more attractive writer and to throw in both feminist ideology and women’s empowerment right off the bat. She is speaking from her very soul to make it come across as undeniably accurate, she wants the world to understand what she can do and how she plans on doing it. This section also serves to formulate a basis for the rest of the religious connotation within the text; we are thrown numerous instances of references to Greek gods and other mythological creations of the past. Though it is not immediately correlated to Christianity it shows that Emilia had a firm grasp of her knowledge about theological ideas outside of Christianity.
The second much less significant section titled: “To The Lady Elizabeths Grace” is a repeat of Emilia’s “To The Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty” but is instead dedicated to the princess. While it does not pertain too much to the focus of this paper, it is important to mention that Emilia wanted to put both the queen and the princess up on pedestals as powerful women. It also serves to support the idea that Emilia’s writing is of a high caliber and that she is capable of producing masterful work. The third portion of her poems is titled: “To All Vertuous Ladies In Generall” and shifts the rest of her work in a very apparent direction. This is a larger chunk of her text as a whole and continues doing two things: eliciting religion and empowering women. This poetry section is on all women instead of the two greatest women of her time, she uses the section to completely empower, support, and define the women of society. She doesn’t allow the society she lives in to define what it means to be a woman, this is further elaborated upon in her next section: “To The Vertuous Reader” which is targeted at men. She decides to dedicate this section to both ripping men apart and attempting to make a plea to them. Emilia employs logic and references to religion throughout this section, not only does she remind men that they were “born of women” she also reminds them that they were “nourished by women”. If it were not for women she states that men would be “extinguished out of the world” which is entirely true. Her argument turns poetic as she tells men that they deface the wombs of women only to seek their company and love as if they deserved that amount of respect from the women they constantly undermine. This section is the most effective at conveying the struggle women face because of men. Emilia perfectly wraps it up by listing several malicious men only to contrast them with virtuous women and then goes on to mark the largest appeal to Christianity by stating inadvertently that Jesus is the best male figure because he understands women. This section of poetry is arguably the most important in her entire piece when in the context of proving that men have a lot of work to do in order to bring about actual equality. It is the bridge between society and her writing, it completely glues together her appreciation for the natural world, knowledge, and society without making it seem artificial.
The penultimate section titled: “Eve’s Apology In Defense of Women” covers the biblical story of the garden of Eden and its eventual fall as a result of temptation. This is the most religious set of poetry in her entire text and attempts to accurately depict her knowledge about the subject while also proposing a proper analysis of the implications of the story. While there are obvious ties to the Christian faith in this poetic section, Emilia uses it as a way to glue together her argument made against men for their obliviousness as well as their lack of empathy. She raises the point of Adam’s apparent perfection and his creation being first, he should have had the wisdom to know that taking a bite from the apple was forbidden and that his perfection should have prevented him from falling from grace. It also creates the space for Emilia to explore the idea of Eve’s creation being that of one of Adam’s ribs which implies that she is a piece of him which means he might not have been as perfect as religion would like to think. This quote perfectly describes the relationship between men and women in both a biblical and realistic way: “You came not in the world without our paine” (Lanier, line 83 in “Eve’s Apology In Defense of Women”). Women have to suffer for men to be born into this world, they should be treated far differently if they’re the sole reason men can exist in the first place. This entire set of poetry is the most ideal for getting through to religious men so that they can understand the argument Emilia is trying to make.
Emilia’s final poetry section titled: “The Description of Cookham” is a country house poem that was both the first of its kind and perfectly captures the natural world in her writing. While this final portion has very minimal influence on the rest of what has been analyzed it is important to the text as a whole because it demonstrates the true nature of Emilia’s writing. The majority of her piece focused on issues regarding inequality between men and women, misogyny, and religion. This final section is a stark contrast to the rest of her writing but completely makes sense when in the context of her piece as a whole. She is capable of combining the natural world and her dedication to something other than a powerful woman in order to finish her poetic piece. She does not need to rely on religion or societal issues in order to prove herself as capable, she captures what it means to be an excellent writer while also not detracting from the rest of her text. The description of Cookham was the best approach she could have taken to end her piece as it gradually lowers the intensity of her text while maintaining her status as a capable writer.
Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum presents itself as a revolutionary work that unfortunately went unnoticed during Emilia’s lifetime. This does not detract from her piece and actually works as the rationale for why people should take a look at it. While there are numerous capable authors in today’s day and age, Emilia should not be ignored as she once was. It’s important to study her text for both the religious value and the content regarding inequality and gender. We’ve lost ourselves partially, at least the groups that believe women should remain chained down by societal standards. Emilia outlines several issues with that ideology, she is brutal in her delivery and that’s the kind of brutality needed to get through to people. Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum cohesively strings ideas together through a religious medium in order to dissect gender inequality, Emilia is not contemporary in her work but her topic of choice is very relevant. It’s important to understand the fragile nature of society when in the context of how women are treated and how some men perceive themselves. Gender and religion are significant to Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum as a whole and even more significant to our world today, Emilia should be looked at much more because her writing has immense value. Her appreciation of the natural world mixed with concepts of inequality, empowerment, and religion creates the foundation for her ability as a writer and for the impact she could have in today’s world. Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum was astounding in its era and would no doubt be astounding if read more today.
Works Cited
Allegra Villarreal, Editor. “Aemilia Lanyer: Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum.” An Open Companion to Early British Literature, 22 Jan. 2019, https://pressbooks.pub/earlybritishlit/chapter/aemilia-lanyar-salve-deus-rex-judaeorum/.
“Æmilia Lanyer.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/aemilia-lanyer.
“Casebooks.” Emilia Lanier, https://casebooks.lib.cam.ac.uk/using-the-casebooks/meet-the-patients/emilia-lanier.
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