‘A Kind of Silent Rhetoric’: the Significance of the Worthies of Chillingham Castle, Anna Brunton

This paper examines the political, cultural, and religious context of the Jacobean statues of the Worthies of Chillingham castle. This is established through an examination of the contemporary political importance of Chillingham. In addition, contrasts between the Jacobean and earlier Elizabethan use of the Worthies in works by Beaumont and Shakespeare are suggested. The many-layered meanings of these Worthies can be elucidated when they are considered both as part of the English fashion for conceit, and as an aspect of Renaissance self-fashioning.