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The ‘Angel’ of English Renaissance Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Donald C. Baker
Donald C. Baker*
Affiliation:
University of Mississippi
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Extract

They have in England

A coin that bears the figure of an angel

Stampèd in gold …

(Merchant of Venice II. vii. 55-57)

The scholar or casual reader whose interest is drawn to Renaissance English literature discovers very early that, in the fantastic profusion of puns and punning allusions that delighted the hearts of Englishmen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, second in frequency only to the cuckold's horns is a thin gold coin called the angel. The uses made of it range from the casual pun ‘There's a pair of angels to guide you to your lodgings’ to elaborate metaphors which mold a scene or provide the vehicle for an entire poem, as in Donne's Elegie XI, ‘The Bracelet’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 6 , 1959 , pp. 85 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1959

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References

1 Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit at Several Weapons, I, ii.

2 Because direct evidence of intent and cause and effect is rare in the field of numismatics, many of the conclusions regarding the angel's reflection of political and religious atmospheric changes are necessarily post hoc ergo propter hoc arguments, and are therefore carefully qualified, though I believe them to be sound. Much of the general information about the physical history of the angel may be found in such basic source books for the English series as Kenyon's, R.L. The Gold Coins of England (London, 1884)Google Scholar and Brooke's, G. C. English Coins (London, 1952)Google Scholar and technical details of interest to numismatists may be found in articles listed in the special bibliographies of these volumes.

3 Figure 1.

4 For an interesting discussion of medieval ship design on coins, see Thompson's, Anthony article, ‘Medieval Ships on Coins (Part II)’, Seaby's Coin and Medal Bulletin (February 1951), pp. 55–58 Google Scholar.

5 Figure 2, reverse of angel of Henry VII. Note the ‘Per Crucem’ legend, and the rose, Henry's badge, to the right of the mast.

6 Figures 3 and 4. Obverse and reverse sides of half-angels and quarter-angels of Elizabeth.

7 For the history of the ‘touching’ ceremonies and the angel's place in it, see W. Charlton, Touch Pieces and Touching for the King's Evil (1914).

8 Figure 5, the reverse of an angel of Mary, showing the new and even more ‘idolatrous’ legend.

9 Figure 6, the obverse and reverse of angels of Elizabeth.

10 Figure 7, obverse and reverse of angels of James I, second coinage (1604-1619), showing on the reverse the substitution of a pillar for the cross as mast of the vessel.

11 Figure 8, obverse and reverse of angels of James I, third coinage (1619-1624), showing the ship design on the reverse. Note that the reverse is of an angel pierced for touching.

12 Figure 9, obverse and reverse of angels of Charles I. Note the obverse is of an angel pierced as a touch piece. The reverse is of an angel that has been pierced, but the hole is plugged.

13 All the angels were ‘hammered’ coins except for one extremely rare issue designed for Charles I by Nicholas Briot.

14 Figure 10, the obverse of ‘angel’ amulet of Queen Anne, of the sort presented to young Samuel Johnson. Johnson's account of this incident, as told to Mrs. Thrale, is related in Boswell's Life (Modern Library edition), pp. 18-19.

15 See the obverse of the angel in Figure 8.

16 I. iii. 15-16 (ed. Herford & Simpson, V, 309).

17 Diary (Everyman's Library edition), II: 294.

18 The Poems of George Herbert (World's Classics), p. 128.

19 The Poems of John Donne (Oxford Standard Authors), p. 21, l. 18.

20 The Poems of George Herbert, p . 69, ll. 11-13.