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III

Imogen alone remains as a possible icon of pure Britishness in the complex of gender, sexuality, and nationalism I have been describing. Surely in her we have an early version of Mosse's icon of respectable womanhood to bless the virile bonding of nationalism.⁵¹ She, more than her father or brothers, presents and experiences Britain, wandering through it, calling up its place names, and describing its natural situation. Imogen's name, invented by Shakespeare for the heroine he adds to his historical material, is derived from that of Brute's wife, Innogen, mother of the British race.⁵² And like other ancient queens, Imogen, too, voices a lyrical celebration of the island: "I' th' world's volume / Our Britain seems as of it, but not in't: / In a great pool, a swan's nest" (3.4.138-40). The image of the swan's nest is as evocative of national identity as that of Neptune's park in the Queen's speech, suggesting among other things Leland's great...

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1. Introduction
2. I
3. Ii
4. Iii
5. Copyright