Today we will classify and diagram some of Queen Elizabeth’s most famous quotes. Though we have covered her story quite extensively in this series on the language of grammar, it has not always been glowing. It is only fitting, then, to give Elizabeth a chance to speak for herself. After all, it was her words more than her actions that won the hearts of her people.

Before we begin, let’s recap what we have covered about her so far and match it up with our grammar lessons.

First, we looked at her ascent to the throne of England in connection to learning pattern six. Then, we covered some basic background on her rule when we learned pattern seven.

We continued her story through three lessons on verbals. For infinitives we considered her relationship with Saint Edmund Campion. For participles, we examined her patronage of William Shakespeare. For gerunds, we reviewed her leadership role in defeating the Spanish Armada.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Now it’s time to look at what Queen Elizabeth said during her lifetime. That will give us a window into how she perceived herself and how she wanted to be perceived by others. It will also give us more practice with authentic language, or words spoken in their natural context. 

We have looked at a lot of these elements already, so let’s focus on the appositive phrase “and a king of England.” It is an appositive because it is restating the idea of “king” in a different way. We stack “and” on a dotted horizontal line because it is an expletive, meaning it does not really have a function or add meaning to the sentence.
This is a rather complicated diagram. Let’s focus on the phrase “more anxious than my country.” Whenever we see a comparison of the degree of something, we have to break down the inferred words in that comparison. In this case, we can understand the sentence to be saying, ‘There is nothing about which I am more anxious than I am anxious about my country.” Then, we draw the diagram with all of the inferred words marked by an “x.”
Notice that “but” is not a conjunction here. It is an adverb that means “only.”
“We pay for love” modifies “price.” It answers the question, “What kind of price?”
“Whose” is an adjective modifying “those.” It answers the question, “Which of those?” The answer is, “Those whose faith and silence you have not already tested.” Notice that “faith and silence” are compound direct objects even though they come at the beginning of the adjective clause.
Notice that “cannot” is a verb here as opposed to “can not,” which is a verb plus an adverb. The difference is that “cannot” means something is impossible whereas “can not” means something may or may not be possible.

This last quote is my favorite because of its political genius. With her characteristic eloquence, Queen Elizabeth aligns her rule with the Will of God and presents herself as His humble servant. This would have been a particularly important message to convey in light of England’s split with the Catholic Church. Without the pope to sanction her rule, she needed God to do so Himself.

But her cleverness does not stop there. In praising the gratitude of her people, she is actually applauding herself and implicitly stating that the people should be thankful she is queen.  

Now let’s focus on that last word for a moment: queen. Elizabeth knew that she was ruling in a man’s world. She felt the threat of rebellion at many points in her rule and knew she needed to present herself in a way that would make her appear not merely as strong as a king but even stronger.

At the same time, she needed to retain her femininity and make herself lovable. When taken as a whole, these quotes showcase the brilliant ways in which Queen Elizabeth walked that fine line. She was strong and beautiful, severe and magnanimous.

I imagine she would have taken Machiavelli’s advice about it being better to be feared than loved, if one cannot be both, as a challenge. “Of course I can be both!” she might have answered. Elizabeth was feared by many during her lifetime because of her iron-fisted rule, but it is the extent to which she was loved that is most remembered.