Nemesis as an Emblem for Queen Mary in Respublica

The article studies the relationship between Italian emblems and the play Respublica written by Nicholas Udall for Queen Mary Tudor (1553). The analysis shows a strict relationship between Alciati’s and his followers’ emblem for the goddess Nemesis and Udall’s description of the same in the play. This allows to infer that the playwright was well aware of the contemporary iconography derived from classical mythology, thus revealing that continental emblems were known in England well before the first English translation of Alciati’s work (1586)