The Elizabethan Trilogy by George Garrett

First published:Death of the Fox, 1971; The Succession, 1983; Entered from the Sun, 1990

Type of plot: Historical

Time of work: The 1550’s through the 1620’s

Locale: England, primarily London

Principal Characters:

• Sir Walter Ralegh, the English courtier, soldier, writer, and explorer
• Elizabeth I, the queen of England
• James VI of Scotland, who becomes
• James I of England, when he succeeds Elizabeth
• Sir Francis Bacon, the lord chancellor of England
• Sir Robert Cecil, Elizabeth’s chief servant
• A messenger, who carries news of the birth of James I
• Captain Barfoot, a soldier and adventurer
• Joseph Hunnyman, an actor
• Alysoun, Hunnyman’s mistress, a young and beautiful widow who owns a printing shop
• Paul Cartwright, a poet

The Novel

The Elizabethan Trilogy’s three separate novels present a sweeping panorama of English life during a brilliant period of history. Historical figures such as Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Ralegh are mingled with invented characters to give a vivid picture of the era’s life from the court to the poorhouse.

The trilogy opens with The Death of the Fox, an evocative account of the life and career of Sir Walter Ralegh, one of the favorites of Queen Elizabeth’s court. Ralegh is executed by James I in 1618, presumably for treason and conspiracy, but of precisely what sort is never revealed. The novel switches between the memories and thoughts of Ralegh, the man in the Tower of London condemned to die, and James I, the suspicious Scot who has condemned him for reasons never quite explained. The Death of the Fox weaves back and forth from the present to the past, gradually revealing the history of Ralegh’s career as he rises to power and prominence in the court of Elizabeth I and then is undone by the plots of his rivals and the suspicions of James I. When Ralegh fails in an expedition to discover gold in South America and also becomes an impediment to peace between England and Spain—a project that is especially dear to James—his life is forfeit. After years of a career that has seen the heights and depths of Elizabethan English life, Ralegh is brought out to die by the headsman’s ax, and the novel ends with his execution. The Succession, subtitled A Novel of Elizabeth and James, is a meditation on the transfer of power from the dying queen to her impatient heir. Because Elizabeth has stubbornly refused to name her cousin, James VI of Scotland, as her successor to the English throne, his accession remains in doubt to the last moment. This uncertainty, recounted largely in retrospect, is the mainspring for the actions of the novel’s characters, who frantically hedge their bets while trying to hide what they do from the dying queen.

That Elizabeth had executed James’s mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, helps to explain both her reluctance to name him officially and the uncertainty that clings to his title. Like The Death of the Fox, The Succession blends the past and the present, moving from the year of the old queen’s death (1603) to that of her own succession to the throne (1558). Garrett uses his characters, real and fictional, to paint a sweeping, vivid portrait of England during this period.

The trilogy concludes with Entered from the Sun, the most personal and fictional of the three volumes. This book, essentially an Elizabethan detective story, has two characters searching for the elusive truth behind the killing of the famous poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe. The major historical figures so prominent in the two earlier works retire behind Garrett’s fictional creations. Ralegh makes a minor appearance toward the end of the novel, and Marlowe, the centerpiece of the plot, is dead long before the the story begins.

One of the two unwilling detectives, Joseph Hunnyman, is a marginally successful actor. He is forced to undertake his search through the threats of a mysterious and anonymous young nobleman. The second, Captain Barfoot, is a professional soldier who is recruited through a disreputable poet and adventurer, Paul Cartwright. After their paths have crossed on several occasions, not always knowingly, Hunnyman and Barfoot discover that Marlowe was likely murdered on the orders of his own patron, but for reasons that will likely never be known. Barfoot is killed fighting in Ireland; Alysoun bears Barfoot’s child and then marries one of her apprentices; Cartwright is murdered; and Hunnyman simply disappears.

The Characters

Certain historical characters appear throughout The Elizabethan Trilogy, most notably Elizabeth I, James I, and Sir Walter Ralegh. A set of secondary historical characters, including Francis Bacon, Robert Cecil, and William Shakespeare, also make appearances. Whether his characters are historical or fictional, Garrett uses two major devices to present and develop them.

The first is to present characters from a double point of view. In other words, they are described both as their contemporaries would have seen them and as they might have seen themselves. In this fashion, Walter Ralegh is seen in a variety of contradictory lights by those who shared the stage of English history with him. Their judgments are often tentative, and in The Death of the Fox, Garrett leaves the impression that James I regretted his condemnation and execution of Ralegh. On the other hand, Ralegh is also allowed to present his own thoughts and feelings, in words and phrases that Garrett has been careful to make characteristic of Ralegh’s own writings. The other characters in the trilogy, both historical and fictional, are often presented in this fashion.

Elizabeth I, queen of England, and James VI of Scotland, who later became James I of England, are at times described by an outside observer and at times by themselves, as their intimate thoughts and feelings are recorded in a stream-of-consciousness fashion consistent with the rhetorical style of Renaissance England. These are characters who are clearly and thoroughly people of their place and time, and this is underscored by their use of language. Readers come to know them through their own words.

The reader is not permitted the same intimate access to the minds of other figures in the story, including Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Robert Cecil, and the anonymous messenger who carries the news of the birth of James from Edinburgh to London. Garrett presents what they know and shows what they see—in the case of the messenger, it is a view of all England—but readers remain outside them. They are, in a sense, lenses for viewing the distant past.

On the other hand, Joseph Hunnyman, his mistress Alysoun, and the mysterious soldier Captain Barfoot are rounded individuals who have their own unique personalities and qualities. Allowed the freedom of a novelist, Garrett can create characters who are more real, in a sense, than actual historical persons. Readers know Joseph Hunnyman or Captain Barfoot more fully than they comprehend historical figures such as James I or Walter Ralegh, who are trapped forever in the roles they actually played—or, more accurately, in the roles that the agreed-upon fiction known as history claims that they played.

Critical Context

George Garrett was well known as a novelist, poet, playwright, and short-story writer before he produced The Death of the Fox, the first volume of the trilogy. He had proven his accomplishments through stories that touched on a variety of themes, times, and characters, and he had been honored by awards, fellowships and critical acclaim. He thus brought a lifetime of accomplishment to help him achieve his goal of re-creating the world of Elizabethan England. The task required years of researching, writing, and experimenting to produce the forms, techniques, and styles needed to create such memorable characters as Sir Walter Ralegh, Joseph Hunnyman, and the monarchs Elizabeth and James.

Taken together, the three books of the trilogy constitute a meditation on and a re-creation of one of the greatest and most imaginative periods of Western history, especially in English literature. Daringly, Garrett’s trilogy invites, even insists, upon comparison with the literature of the period it portrays. Garrett seems to wish to be situated not merely in reference to his contemporaries but to long-acknowledged masters of English literature such as Ralegh, Marlowe, and perhaps even Shakespeare.

The critical reaction justified the daring claim. The Death of the Fox was widely hailed by literary critics and reviewers as one of the most significant novels of its time. The Succession, which followed twelve years later, confirmed the consensus among serious readers that Garrett was developing a series that was both reshaping the historical novel and redefining the modern view of the Elizabethan world. With Entered from the Sun, the third and final volume of the trilogy, Garrett was recognized as having accomplished this goal.

Bibliography

Bloom, Harold, ed. “George Garrett.” In Twentieth Century American Literature. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. A solid study of Garrett’s craftsmanship and his approach to characters and style.

Dillard, R. H. W. Understanding George Garrett. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1988. An informing and engaging study by a fellow author and friend of Garrett.

Rhodes, Jack Wright. “George Garrett.” In American Novelists Since World War II. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978. Especially good for placing Garrett’s earlier works in perspective.

Robinson, W. R. “Imagining the Individual: George Garrett’s Death of the Fox.” Hollins Critic 8 (1972): 1-12. An interesting study of how Garrett created the characters in the first novel of his trilogy.

Trosky, Susan, ed. “George Garrett.” In Contemporary Authors. New Revision Series, vol. 42. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994. Places Garrett’s work in the context of his own career and those of his contemporaries.