Sovereign States: Byatt, Bard and coronations

Abstract

This essay is written from the perspective of an Anglophone South African in the ongoing aftermath of ‘state capture’ in this land. It draws on Shakespeare’s preoccupation with monarchy or sovereignty, in the context of a time of transition (in the UK and the Commonwealth of which South Africa is a member) from the reign of Elizabeth II to that of Charles III. It is grounded for that reason in a novel by A.S. Byatt, The Virgin in the Garden, which deals with the coronation (the first to be televised) of the late queen in 1953. That novel is also about a largescale outdoor verse drama on the life of Elizabeth I, the ‘Virgin Queen’. Byatt shows us how the press spoke, in high earnest, of the new dispensation. She is earnest herself, and also ironic, and at times satirical. So is this essay