Roman walls in English Renaissance writing

Abstract

In 1587, an anonymous author proposed to Queen Elizabeth I that Hadrian's Wall should be reconstructed. Elizabeth did not adopt this proposal, but it testifies to a growing interest in the Wall on the part of writers such as Camden, Spenser, Drayton and William Warner. This essay examines ideas about Roman walls in these and other texts, including plays by Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare's King John, where the city walls of Angers, originally built to protect the city against Germanic invasion in 275 AD and still partially visible, provide an ironic backdrop for the play's animus against Roman Catholicism.