Queen Elizabeth

Queen Elizabeth I reigned in England from 1599-1603. Her leadership as a woman, as a woman who had been considered illegitimate, her heavy influence on society, and religion has made her widely known throughout history.  Mary Crane’s, Sixteenth-Century British Nondramatic Writers explains how critics traced her role as an inspiration for works such as Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590-1596), and William Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1600) (par. 1). The Encyclopedia of the Renaissance acknowledges Elizabeth’s linguistic capabilities, academic achievements, and her settlement of religion which made her Supreme Governor of the Church (par. 6).

In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando the main character experiences many different eras and change in social structure based off of the current reigning monarch. Queen Elizabeth’s reign played a heavy influence on Orlando’s developing conformity to society's current structures. One example would be when the narrator states, “It was Orlando’s fault perhaps; yet, after all, are we to blame Orlando? The age was the Elizabethan; their morals were not ours; nor their poets; nor their climate; nor their vegetables even. Everything was different. The weather itself, the heat and cold of summer and winter, was, we may believe, of another temper altogether” and connects all aspects of emotion, nature, Elizabethan culture and standards to Orlando’s decisions to adapt to these changing standards (26-7)

Crane, Mary Thomas. "Elizabeth I." Sixteenth-Century British Nondramatic Writers: Second Series, edited by David A. Richardson, Gale, 1994. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 136. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200002775/LitRC?u=sand 82993sid=LitRC&xid=e89c6871. Accessed 28 May 2021.

"Elizabeth I." Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, edited by Paul F. Grendler, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2000. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/BT2354100188/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&xid=0256276b. Accessed 28 May 2021.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) (Historical) (Chapter 2 page 88)

William Shakespeare is widely considered to be the greatest playwright of the English language. He created over 37 plays including "Romeo and Juliet," "Hamlet," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and many more ("William Shakespeare"). Shakespeare was mostly active during the Elizabethan age and experienced great success and was considered by many of his contemporaries to be great. In fact, in the First Folio edition of Shakespeare's collection another famous dramatist. Ben Jonson, commented that "He was not of an age, but for all time" ("William Shakespeare"). 

Virginia Woolf was undeniably familiar with Shakespeare's works. In fact Woolf wrong in her feminist essay "A Room of One's Own" about a fictional "Judith Shakespeare" that was of equal talent with William Shakespeare (Merrigan). However, despite being as gifted as William would be, Judith is denied an opportunity to display her talents to the masses because of her identity as a woman. 

In Orlando, Woolf mentions Shakespeare several times throughout different chapters often in conversation between Orlando and Nicholas Greene. While Greene at first is dismissive of Shakespeare he later calls "Marlowe, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson - those were the giants." (Woolf 162). Orlando themself think about Shakespeare's lines at times as great. As Woolf and Orlando write their poems they would have undoubtedly been comparing themselves to Shakespeare as they grapple with what type of legacy their work will have. 

225 words

Merrigan, Tara. “How Virginia Woolf Used Fiction to Make a Persuasive Case for Equality.” Medium, Poetry & Politics, 22 July 2019, medium.com/poetry-politics/how-virginia-woolf-used-fiction-to-make-a-persuasive-case-for-equality-f8138379fd66.

“William Shakespeare.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 3 Oct. 2011, www.history.com/topics/british-history/william-shakespeare.

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando (Vintage Classics). Random House. Kindle Edition. 

The founding of the Royal Exchange in London in 1571

The original Royal Exchange

The Royal Exchange [Chapter 1, page 44] in London was founded in the 16th Century by the merchant Sir Thomas Gresham. Gresham had been based in Antwerp as a royal agent. He saw that there was a magnificent Bourse (a stock market in a non-English-speaking country, especially France) in Antwerp, but there wasn’t one in his hometown. He proposed to build a building for the stock exchange at his own expense as long as the city provided the land. The site was provided by the City of London Corporation and the Worshipful Company of Mercers, who still jointly own the freehold. The original foundation was ceremonially opened by Queen Elizabeth I, who granted it its “royal” title and a license to sell alcohol. The original Royal Exchange was modeled on the Bourse in Antwerp, the world’s oldest financial exchange. The exchange building has twice been destroyed by fire and subsequently rebuilt.
The present building was designed by Sir William Tite in the 1840s. Today the Royal Exchange contains bars, restaurants, luxury shops, and offices.
Traditionally, the steps of the Royal Exchange are the place where certain royal proclamations are read out by either a herald or a crier. These proclamations include the dissolution of parliament, the death or abdication of a monarch and the confirmation of the next monarch's accession to the throne by the Accession Council. (252 words)
In the novel Orlando, the Royal Exchange is mentioned on page 44, Chapter 1 when Orlando takes Sasha to London and “bought her whatever took her fancy in the Royal Exchange.”

Works Cited:
“Heritage." The Royal Exchange. https://www.theroyalexchange.co.uk/heritage/
“The Royal Exchange." British History Online. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol1/pp494-513

Thomas Browne (1605-1682) [HISTORICAL] (Chapter 2) (page 81)

Thomas Browne (1605-1682) [HISTORICAL] was an English physician and author. He became an M.D. in 1633 and began a practice at Shibden Hall near Halifax, in Yorkshire, before going to Oxford. Browne had a habit of writing notes and journal entries, eventually compiling his most famous work, Religio Medici. It is described as a “journal largely about the mysteries of God, nature, and man, which he himself described as ‘a private exercise directed to myself’” (p 2). Browne was able to produce many written works by using notebooks of his own thoughts, later publishing books like Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646), The Garden, and A Letter to a Friend, Upon occasion of the Death of his Intimate Friend(1609). He explores many topics, from horticulture to dispelling superstitions to death. He especially took care to show scientific explanations for things rather than relying on superstition, and would blend English, Latin, and Greek together in order to write his exact thoughts. Because of this, he is “credited with adding more words to the English language than any other writer except William Shakespeare—700 by the Oxford English Dictionary’s count” (Ferry 1688). 

It is especially interesting that Orlando chooses to attribute immortal writing with Thomas Browne, especially at the time of the book that it occurs. Orlando is comparing the conquests of his ancestors: “But of all that killing and campaigning, that drinking and love-making, that spending and hunting and riding and eating, what remained? A skull; a finger. Whereas, he said, turning to the page of Sir Thomas Browne… and Orlando, comparing that achievement with those of his ancestors, cried out that they and their deeds were dust and ashes, but this man and his words were immortal” (Woolf 81). The placement of this comparison coincides with a theme in one of Browne’s passages in Pseudodoxia Epidemica, which pertained to “solemn reflections on death and the transience of human fame” (p 3).

Ferry, Georgina. “Thomas Browne: a Rarity among Rarities.” The Lancet, vol. 389, no. 10080, 29 Apr. 2017, pp. 1687–1688., doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(17)31067-x.

“Sir Thomas Browne.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Browne.

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: a Biography. Harcourt, Inc, 1973.

John Dryden

        John Dryden (1631-1700) [HISTORICAL] (Mentioned various times throughout Chapter 4) was one of the greatest poets of the 17th century. He wrote plays and poetry alongside John Donne, John Milton, William Shakespeare, and Ben Johnson. He went to Cambridge University for his B.A. after attending Westminster School. He set himself apart from other writers of the time with his talent for prose writing. He also translated many classical works to English. These classical works such as Dante's Inferno and the Aeniad influenced his own writing greatly. Many of his poems explore themes of politics and social class. Not only did he write almost thirty plays, but he was a one of the first noted literary critics of his time. He is alluded to by many romantic writers and poets, though not as negatively as Alexander Pope. He died and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 

        Throughout Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, he is referenced as being one of the protagonist's greatest inspirations along with Pope and Addison. When Orlando becomes a writer, she insights the work of these three poets as models for her work.

“John Dryden.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-dryden.

Sutherland, James. “Verse Satires of John Dryden.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 8 Mar. 2021, www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dryden/Verse-satires.

Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) [Historical] (Ch. 2; pg. 81)

Sir Thomas Browne is brought up in a section of the story where Orlando is looking upon the physical items of past ancestors that were great conquerors and adventurers: names like Sir Gawain, Sir Miles, Sir Andrew, and Sir Herbert for example. Orlando is recalling all of these men who accomplished great things but brings up the fact that there are only a few physical objects left behind from their lives, like a skull or a finger (81). He then turns to the person of Sir Thomas Browne and exclaims that his life was a life well led because of the great works of literature he was able to leave behind. Orlando explains how the words of Browne rose like an “incantation” from all parts of the room when read aloud and how the deeds of his ancestors were dust and ashes when compared to these man’s immortal and beautiful words (81). The idea of a person living on for generations through the English language drew my interest.

Sir Thomas Browne was an English physician and accidental author. He studied to become a doctor at Winchester and Oxford, and after taking his M.D. at Leiden in 1633, he practiced at Shibden Hall near Halifax, in Yorkshire, from 1634, until he was admitted as an M.D. at Oxford; he settled in Norwich in 1637. Browne would write about certain things he was thinking about–like the mysteries of God, nature, and man–in a journal called Religio Medici that got accidentally published. At first it was circulated among friends in manuscript form, but then eventually was printed without his permission in 1642 (“Sir Thomas Browne”).

(274 words) 

“Sir Thomas Browne.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Browne.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) [Historical] (Chapter 4 pp.

Text.

The Great Frost in Connection to Woolf's "Orlando" (Historical) Chapter 1 (pgs. 33-34)

Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando contains events based on historical as well as fictional concepts. One event with evident historical background is introduced early on in the novel as "the Great Frost" (Woolf 33). While the section of the novel that follows this introduction contains what some readers might classify as fictional descriptions, much of what is written within the story is based on fact. According to an article from New Scientist, the winter of 1709 still "holds the record as the coldest European winter of the past half-millennium," (Pain) though there is still no solid explanation for why the extremely cold event happened in the first place. While Orlando portrays birds freezing "in mid-air," (33) cases of "petrification," (34) and overall frigid suffering, it seems like most of these descriptions match up with historical accounts taken during this period of time that lasted roughly three months. According to an Upminster clergyman named William Derham, the temperatures were so low as to lead to fish freezing within water and "birds falling dead from the sky," (Taylor) which seems to seamlessly match up with Woolf's descriptions used in her novel. The overall impact of this period of devastation fixated on Britain's economy; the main areas of suffering had to do with "a decline in agriculture and industry" (Taylor) and riots formed as a result of the chaos, leading to "the Riot Act of 1714" (Taylor). Taylor's article from The Washington Post also makes interesting points about the similarities in the country's economy as affected by the titular events of first the Great Frost and now the COVID-19 global pandemic. "[H]istorians think the country's gross domestic product declined 13 percent" (Taylor) within the span of the Great Frost, and the rough estimations of Britain's economy according to data for the year 2020 show a fall "by 11.5 percent" (Taylor). Overall, the Great Frost as depicted in Woolf's Orlando displays a very accurate representation of England's (and the rest of Europe's) difficult predicament. It was obviously an event of great influence, as it found its way into Woolf's fictional terrain, and displays relevancy to 21st-century readers.

Works Cited

Pain, Stephanie. “1709: The Year That Europe Froze.” New Scientist, 4 Feb. 2009, www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126942-100-1709-the-year-that-europe-fr....

Taylor, Adam. “Amid Pandemics and Protests, Is Britain Facing Its Worst Economy since the Great Frost of 1709?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 12 June 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/06/11/amid-pandemics-protests-is-brita....

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. Harcourt Brace and Co, 1993.

The Adam Brothers: the Architects Who Brought Rome to Britain

Robert Adam

The Adam brothers [Chapter 5, Page 228] are Robert Adam (1728–1792) and James Adam (1732–1794). They were born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, the sons of Scotland’s most famous architect William Adam (1689–1748). Both Adam brothers made Grand Tours when they studied their art. During their tour, they amassed antiquities and drawings and brought them back home. On their return to Britain, they settled in London and started their career as architects, builders, designers, and developers, as well as suppliers of building materials. The Grand Tour greatly influenced their design. They utilized their knowledge and study of Roman antiquity, incorporated English, Scottish and French elements, and developed what we now know as the Adam style of architecture.
The Adam Brothers initiated a new phase of the classical revival in England and Scotland and introduced neoclassicism to Britain. Their architectural style is characterized by neo-Antique ornaments and typically 18th-century refinement and elegance. The focus of the Adam brothers’ practice was the unity of their designs, often achieved by conceiving houses in their entirety, their exterior and interior designs as well as their furniture. However, they also designed interiors for existing houses and provided plans for exteriors. Some of their buildings still used elements of the Palladian style in their exteriors, but the interiors they designed were deliberately and distinctly new and different.
Famous buildings designed by the Adam brothers include the Royal Exchange and Charlotte Square in Edinburgh, Pulteney Bridge in Bath, Osterley Park, Syon House, and Kenwood House around London. Their most famous creation was probably the Adelphi, a multi-purpose development (now largely demolished) on the north side of the Thames. It was built between 1768 and 1772 and was funded by the brothers with the intention of having aristocratic housing above wharves, warehouses, and dwellings for workers. However, the project financially ruined the brothers. (302 words)

On page 228, Chapter 5 of Orlando, Woolf describes a“ hardy country gentleman, who had sat down gladly to a meal of ale and beef in a room designed, perhaps by the brothers Adam, with classic dignity, now felt chilly.” (228)

Works Cited
“Robert Adam: The architect who brought Rome to Scotland.” The Scotsman. https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/robert-adam-arc...
“View of the south front of the new buildings called Adelphi.” British Library. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/view-of-the-south-front-of-the-new-bu...

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Lord Tennyson, (1809-1892) was acknowledged as a renowned poet. In “Poetry Criticism” Michelle Lee claims that poets such as T.S. Eliot and W.H Auden, praised him for having a “fine ear” (par.1). Lee continues by stating that Tennyson’s career spanned for more than sixty years, and was considered as the “embodiment of the Victorian Age, despite his obvious dept to Classicism and Romanticism and his affinities with Modernism” (par. 1). Some of Tennyson’s more popular works include In Memoriam (1850)  Idylls of the King (1859) and Ulysses (1833). William Fredeman and Ira Nadal explain how though Tennyson was the poetic spokesman for the reign of Queen Victoria, and he was called to positively acknowledge the changes in the industrial and mercantile world, he felt saddened and disconnected to this rural England (par.1). Fredeman and Nadal continue by stating how Tennyson felt the divide between duty and his allegiance to the beauty of nature (par. 1).

In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando Tennyson’s name is mentioned in addition to a few other famous writers “...Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle!’—he threw an immense amount of scorn into his voice. ‘The truth of it is,’ he said, pouring himself a glass of wine, ‘that all our young writers are in the pay of booksellers. They turn out any trash that serves to pay their tailor’s bills” (278). Here Sir Nicholas is voicing his own opinions about literature, but it begins to affect Orlando and he makes him feel “unaccountably disappointed” (279). Orlando is heavily influenced by writers, and continues to have changing perspectives about them as the novel progresses. 

"Alfred, Lord Tennyson." Poetry Criticism, edited by Michelle Lee, vol. 101, Gale, 2010. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/VVKKFZ766455290/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&xid=f9bde926. Accessed 28 May 2021.

"Alfred Tennyson." Victorian Poets Before 1850, edited by William E. Fredeman and Ira Bruce Nadel, Gale, 1984. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 32. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200003729/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&xid=7a3a6184. Accessed 28 May 2021

Piccadilly Circus (1819) [Historical] (Ch 4; pg. 225)

With the final lines of “The Eighteenth century was over; the Nineteenth century had begun,” chapter four ends in a chilling tone that leaves much of the story up in the air. Chapter four ends with the description of a dark, doubtful, confusing cloud that covers the city. Is this cloud metaphorical or literal? It doesn’t hurt if it is both, but it would be wise to see it in a metaphorical light at the moment. This cloud is spanning over the lights of London at midnight, covering the expanse of the city in a patch of night-time shadow. The location of Piccadilly is mentioned in this section. I find it interesting that it is mentioned here, right before the ominous words that suggest a large shift in the narrative to accompany the shift in centuries. 

Piccadilly Circus was created in 1819, at the junction with Regent Street, which was then being built under the planning of John Nash on the site of a house and garden belonging to a Lady Hutton; the intersection was then known as Regent Circus South (just as Oxford Circus was known as Regent Circus North) and it did not begin to be known as Piccadilly Circus until the mid 1880s, with the rebuilding of the Regent Street Quadrant and the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue. In the same period the circus lost its circular form (“Piccadilly Circus”).

I think the fact that the actual Piccadilly Circus wasn’t created until 1819, yet at the turn of the century in the novel, the place of Piccadilly is mentioned is extremely important. It shows that Woolf was thinking about the effects of industrialization, not only on the narrative of the story, but on the historical context of the time.

(291 words)

“Piccadilly Circus.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Piccadilly-Circus.

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) (Historical) Chapter 6 - Page 213

Christina Rossetti, born in London in 1830, was an English poet, remembered for her fantasy, religious, and children's poems. She is the sister of painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rosetti, member of the pre-Raphaelite movement. Rossetti published Goblin Market and Other Poems in 1862, which included perhaps her most well-recognized poem, "Goblin Market." 

In Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando, Christina Rossetti is included as evidence for a statement on Victorian literature: "...next, that it would be impolitic in the extreme to wrap a ten-pound note round the sugar tongs when Miss Christina Rossetti came to tea" (Woolf 213). Interestingly, Rossetti is not referenced for her poetry, but for an imagined visit. Because men dominated the literary canon, and still very much do, Christina Rossetti's work has been historically overlooked. Even Woolf mentions Rossetti's work, and women's work in general, far less than the big name poets like Tennyson, Donne, Browning, etc. It seems even Woolf felt that Rossetti's poetic impact may have been less significant than many other male Victorian poets.

Bryson, John. “Christina Rossetti.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Christina-Rossetti.

Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (Archduchess Henrietta / Archduke Harry) [fictional]

Henry Lascelles

Many of the characters in Virgina Woolf's Orlando are based off of someone in the real world. Accoridng to the article “Was Virginia Woolf a Snob? The Case of Aristocratic Portraits in Orlando by Christine Fouirnaies, in a journal entry of Woolf's she discusses Vita Sackville- West stating "I trace her passions 500 years back, and they become romantic to me, like old yellow wine." This idea of Sackville-West's passions spanning over centurys is clearly seen through the structure of the novel Orlando. Woolf's association with timelessness and tie to the fantasical with Sackville-West is also seen in the characters of Orlando. While the character of the Archduchess Henrietta / Archduke Harry is a fictional character, the love interest has a basis of truth and was fashioned after Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood, one of Vita Sackville-West's many suitors. A landowner, British soldier, and eventual son-in-law to King George V, Lascelles is the muse for the comedic foil to Orlando, the Archduchess Henrietta, and later in chapter 4, Archduke Harry. While the Archduke seems to be a great match for Orlando as he is a nobleman whose clothes seem to indicate the opposite gender, the pair was not meant to be. The opposition between the gender changes of each character is stark. While Orlando's change from a man to a woman is unexpected and unintentional the persona of Archduchess Henrietta is created with the intent to deceive.   

Fouirnaies, Christine. “Was Virginia Woolf a Snob? The Case of Aristocratic Portraits in Orlando.” Woolf Studies Annual, vol. 22, 2016, pp. 21–40. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26475599. Accessed 4 June 2021.

Violet Trefusis (Princess Sasha)

Violet Trefusis

Violet Trefusis was an English author and socialite. Trefusis is remembered primarly for her long lasting affair with Vita Sackville-West. Both Sackville-West and Trefusis wrote ficitional accounts about their affair, Challenge by Sackville-West, and Broderie Anglaise, a roman à clef wirrten in French by Trefusis. In addition to these works, the two women frequently wrote each other affectionate letters despite their marriages to men. According to Kirstie Blair's article “Gypsies and Lesbian Desire: Vita Sackville-West, Violet Trefusis, and Virginia Woolf" the affair between Sackville-West and Trefusis came to an abrupt end when Trefusis was supposedly unfaithful to Sackville-West as Sackville-West had demanded that Trefusis not be intimate with her soon-to-be husband but Trefusis broke her promise. This love affair is memorialized in Virgina Woolf's Orlando as Trefusis was the inspiration for the fictional character of the Russian princess, Sasha. Sasha is the first character in the novel that leaves Orlando with a feeling of loss and despair. Sasha's mysterious nature awakens Orlando's sexual desire and pushes him to change his complacent way of viewing life. This woman with mysterious and some what devious nature is reflected in Woolf's own life in her experince with Vita Sackville-West who is recorded as asking Woolf to run away with her "Sackville-West's letter provides one instance of the tantalizing presence of the gypsy as the antithesis of the 'familiar and entrapping'" (Blair).

Blair, Kirstie. “Gypsies and Lesbian Desire: Vita Sackville-West, Violet Trefusis, and Virginia Woolf.” Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 50, no. 2, 2004, pp. 141–166. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4149276. Accessed 4 June 2021.