Kingship in Macbeth heory

Critical T Adapted from

original academic
papers
by @HughesHaili
www.twitter.com/boostGCSE

David Lucking Sarah Wintle (1991)

(2006) 'Imperfect 'Macbeth and the
Barren Spectre,'
speakers: Macbeth
Essays in criticism,
and the name of 41(2), pp. 128-146
king,' English
The Thanes and Context of Kingship and

Studies, 87(4),
pp. 415-425
Kingship and names fealty Kingship lineage

Critics have often remarked that Macbeth can be read as a play about names and naming, and also about the deeply Shakespeare demonstrates that a medieval or early-modern monarchy could not function without the nobles’ fealty. Although Shakespeare’s Henry V tries many times to understand and define kingship. One such moment occurs in the English camp at
problematic status of the identities that names are presumed to designate. Ideas of succession and continuity seem to have been an abiding preoccupation for Shakespeare. This particular personal
fealty is due from all subjects, Macbeth explores the circumstances under which it can be withheld. Both protagonists, Duncan Agincourt, before the battle with the French. The king says that he is “twin-born with greatness” and at the same time “subject
The most conspicuous ‘‘name’’ around which this particular play revolves happens to be that of king, a circumstance that interest coincided with a contemporary public and political concern. All his plays were written either towards the end of a long
and Macbeth, are deposed by their subjects and suffer violent deaths to the breath / of every fool”. Kantorowicz responds to Henry’s musings and claims that the king is not only born with
throws into particularly vivid relief some of the more troublesome issues involved in the process of naming. reign by a sovereign who had no direct heir, or at the beginning of the reign of a sovereign who had produced children but
Shakespeare subtly reflects and contests King James’ extensive writings on kingship and subjects’ rights. From close reading we “greatness”, but also with “human nature”, which makes him subject to the judgment and censure “of every fool”. This
To a degree, much greater than is the case with any other individual in his realm, a king is characterised by his peculiar whose legitimacy or claim to represent continuity could do with buttressing.
can see how a subject’s fealty and rights in eleventh-century Scotland have been modified to survive the close scrutiny of a dichotomy of manhood and divine greatness that is materialised in the person of the king stems from medieval Christology.
Oliver R. Baker preeminence among men. Yet at the same time there can be no kingship without community, for the monarch’s distinctiveness James I and his children could claim descent from two of the characters in Macbeth, Malcolm and Fleance, both sons of fathers Urszula Kizelbach
Jacobean Revels Office. Although Macbeth succeed to the throne by murdering those ranked above him in a hereditary line of According to the orthodox medieval dogma, Christ was “una persona, duae naturae”, which means that he was simultaneously
(2016) 'The Thanes can be defined as such only in relation to that social matrix of which he is inseparably a part. The ‘‘name of king’’ therefore murdered in the play by the childless Macbeth. (2014) The
succession and then murdered again to remain in power, we might note that Macbeth is frequently referred to as a “tyrant” and man and God in one person. Related to this Christ-oriented kingship is the definition of “gemina persona” or a “twin person”,
exhibits both an individual and a collective dimension, tacitly implicating not only the specific human being endowed with the James had children and an heir. The historical fact, ascertainable from Holinshed, that the Macbeths were without heirs, that
in Macbeth: Fealty his actions are shown to be wrong. which implies that the king/Christ is a dual being, both human and divine. pragmatics of early
title but also the entire social organism of which he is at the head, creating a potential tension between the two. the murder of Duncan results only in the grasp of 'a barren sceptre' seems to have prompted Shakespeare to write a play which
James I proposed a doctrine that claimed a sovereign with both a hereditary and a divine right to the throne, was responsible 1603 found England a monarchy with a strongly centralised power held by the king; it was the king who was in charge of the
and obedience to The What makes the situation of Macbeth particularly illuminating is the fact that he is an individual who, not content with any of (as so many have noted) continually comes back to its concern with children and babies. modern politics:
to God alone with prerogative powers above the Common Law (The Divine Right of Kings). James based his arguments on Parliament and the Church, he also appointed Privy Councillors. The reign of both Elizabeth and James I was focused on
the names he is merely given, seeks to augment his status in the world by assuming a name on his own account - one that holds Most of the major characters in the play appear at some point in the role of parent or child with the single and prominent
True Lawe of Free Scripture reasoning that only God could depose or punish a monarch and that a tyrannical ruler’s subjects had no remedy but keeping up the legitimacy of power, which was undermined by rebellions. In fact, neither Elizabeth nor James was strong power and kingship
linguistic power in society, that of 'king.' exception of Macbeth himself, and the witches.
prayer. His writings included a weasel clause though, deposing a rightful monarch who became a tyrant was unlawful, but enough to prevent their kingship from being subject to plotters, often representatives of courtly circles holding significant
Monarchies,' In the context of society at the time, at first there is nothing in the least unorthodox about the manner in which Macbeth seeks assisting the “lawfull heire” to depose a usurper was a duty. Being answerable only to God, a monarch’s shortcomings were political positions. James, as the Supreme Governor of the church, protected the privileges of the clergy (he secured their
The Macbeths' childlessness and the doubts about their sexual identity that are suggested in the course of the play are closely in Shakespeare's
to aggrandise his own social status. His acquisition of new names is accomplished in complete conformity with the conventions associated with Shakespeare's examination of the nature of evil.
Shakespeare, 12(2), irrelevant. For James this was critical; usurping the throne was high treason. wealth), for which he received the support of his absolute royal power from the clerics. At an early stage in the Stuart period history plays.
reigning in his community. Through a series of spectacular feats of valour, he enhances his reputation as a warrior and as a The fact that Duncan himself has sons, Malcom and Donalbain, is of key importance in the plot itself and its resolution. Duncan
By the beginning of the seventeenth-century, James’ absolutist, self-righteous views were woefully archaic. The development the higher clergy popularised in church the idea that all power comes from God and that the king is above all human laws. This
pp. 111-133 loyal subject in the eyes of all who observe him, and the attribution of new names follows as a matter of course. of political thought throughout medieval and early modern England entailed broad acceptance of hereditary monarchy new doctrine, known as “the divine right of kings”, was intent on legitimising the weak Stuart claim to the English throne. The
is a good and just king and has followed the natural order and produced sons. Banquo's message from the witches presupposes Amsterdam: Rodopi.
The first mention of his name in the play occurs in the epithet ‘‘brave Macbeth’’ pronounced by a captain in a vivid report of his the existence of his son Fleance who will escape being murdered and so live to found the Stuart dynasty. Then there is

coupled with despair that violence remained the only resort to restrain a malign monarch. Yet many in a Jacobean audience Church served as the king’s “ministry of propaganda”, producing treatises and pamphlets in support of the royal power.
exploits. Significantly, this epithet is immediately followed by ‘‘well he deserves that name." Evidently the captain considers Macduff's small son, murdered as he defends his father's reputation, and finally young Siward nobly killed in battle, to his
accepted the God-fearing Tudor view. James I saw the king as God’s lieutenant on Earth, who was accountable only to God, and since God granted him all power, his
himself sufficiently qualified, by virtue of his own military standing and the wounds he has sustained in defence of the realm, to father's grim satisfaction, as he fights Macbeth. All these children are male, hence potential heirs and successors, and seen in
Macbeth ends almost where it begins, not with witches on the heath, but in the aftermath of a rebellion where fealty subjects had no power to challenge or coerce their king, but they had to remain obedient.
bestow such laudatory ‘‘names’’ without being accused of overstepping the bounds of decorum, and indeed no one calls his relation to their fathers.
determines the final outcome. Whereas Duncan’s thanes unite to defeat the rebel-supported foreign invaders, these same In early modern England, the doctrine of patriarchalism associated the fundamental role of the family with its head, the father.
authority into question. Lady Macbeth denies her own femaleness by perverting her capacity to nurse a child. Lady Macbeth contrasts absolutely with
thanes desert Macbeth one by one. Because it happens offstage it is easy to forget that two rebel thanes pay dearly for treason Patriarchal attitudes greatly influenced the absolutist theory of royal authority, which claimed that the first fathers were kings,
Titles of rank however are another matter altogether, as becomes evident when King Duncan expresses his appreciation of the passive and conventionally timorous Lady Macduff, an innocent mother of several children deserted by her husband, and
in Act 1. Macbeth disembowels and decapitates Macdonald in battle and publicly displays his severed head. Meanwhile, and so royal power and fatherly power are one and the same thing. In this way, the obligations of the subjects arose from the
Macbeth’s valour and loyalty by transferring to him the title of the rebel he has vanquished: "He bade me, from him, call thee murdered defenceless.
Cawdor is captured and executed despite pleading for mercy. Macbeth concludes not with a speech in Parliament about law of nature: subjects should be obedient to their monarch just as children show natural obedience to their father. This idea
Thane of Cawdor: In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane, For it is thine." While it cannot be disputed that, according to the Having the innocent Macduff family slaughtered is the low point of Macbeth's decline: it marks a complete break with the
genealogy or the evils of foreign invasion and civil war, but with battlefield victory celebrations during which Duncan’s eldest adds a new dimension to Lady Macbeth's excuse that she did not kill Duncan herself as he resembled her father while he slept.
martial value system prevailing in his society at least, Macbeth once again fully deserves the new title with which he is invested, normal bonds of humanity and what good kingship should look like. The bereaved Macduff's observation to Malcolm, 'He has
son, the newly acclaimed King of Scots, proclaims, "My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland To Shakespeare’s Macbeth reflects the political situation in England – the murder of King Duncan taken from the medieval
it is also made clear in the play that this title is by its very nature something that must be bestowed upon him by his sovereign no children', suggests that Macbeth can only commit such a crime because he does not fully understand what it might mean to
such an honour named." This stage action closely follows Holinshed’s account from which we learn the names of the eight earls Scottish history raised questions about the still not resolved matter of hereditary rights to the English throne after the death of
rather than something he can arrogate to himself or be awarded by his peers. have children. A further jump in meaning is possible: he has no children because to have children is an outward sign of natural
created by Malcolm. Queen Elizabeth. It was also a transition period marked by the end of the Tudor dynasty and the beginning of the Stuart reign in
The power to confer new names that transform the public identity of the individual is the prerogative of Duncan alone, and it is humanity. We might also add that the begetting of children is seen as the ultimate sign of manhood and kingship, just as the
When first writing Macbeth, Shakespeare carefully alters the focus of Holinshed’s account to show the eleventh-century England (Shakespeare wrote the play after James I’s accession in 1603). Macbeth may serve as a Renaissance study of tyranny,
a function that the play goes to some trouble to emphasise. The names he dispenses designate positions in society, not human nursing and nurturing of them is a distinct sign of womanhood. A man is not a man, a king is not a king, until he proves it by
Scottish nobles complying with some of the requirements of The True Lawe. The objective of their rebellion is to depose a or as K ą kolewski notes, of the process of an individual’s becoming a tyrant, with his “devilish” attributes: usurpation, murders,
individuals or whatever distinctive traits they might possess. offspring.
usurper and assure the accession of Duncan’s rightful heir. A fully fledged civil war is avoided. A “usurping tyrant” loses a greed for land and treachery. The play is set in a wider political context, as the figure of Macbeth represents both types of
The self-defeating paradox arises when the possibility occurs to Macbeth that he can acquire a new name by means other than Children (or sons) not only guarantee a man's natural humanity, as they do for Banquo and Duncan and Macduff; they do this
battlefield duel not with the displaced claimant but with one of his nobles in a vengeance killing. Nevertheless, when Macduff tyrants: tyranny through usurpation and tyranny in the way of government. Malcolm and Macduff discuss Macbeth’s rule and
through Duncan’s orders, by circumventing the mechanisms through which identities are fashioned in his society. precisely because they also guarantee succession, the continuity of the human bond through time, both in the domestic family
displays Macbeth’s severed head he publicly performs an act of fealty to Duncan’s rightful successor. accuse him of “boundless intemperance / in nature”, which they understand as “a tyranny”.
Macbeth begins to perceive himself exclusively in terms of the titles he has already acquired and may yet acquire: ‘‘Glamis, and and in the state. Children are essential to community and continuity, a point which would not be lost on James I, successor of
Young Malcolm may well have an irrefutable claim as the rightful successor to Duncan, but without the continuing active Renaissance monarchs perceived kingship as theatre and play, pointing out the public character of their office. King James I
Thane of Cawdor: / The greatest is behind’’ - Ironically, in being made the recipient of Cawdor’s title in recognition of his loyalty, the childless Elizabeth.
support of his nobles he can neither win nor keep the Scottish crown – a sobering practicality quite at variance with James’ described vividly the nature of royalty in “Basilicon Doron”, a royal treatise on kingship dedicated to his son. In an address to
Macbeth has inherited the traitorous instincts of his predecessor as well. It is as if it is the name itself that exerts a malignant When Macbeth visits the witches in Act IV to 'know by the worst means the worst', he is shown not only an armed head, a
formulation of the divine right, his absolutism, and his contention that he is above the law. the Reader we learn that:
influence overruling the promptings of allegiance, morality, and even personal inclination. bloody child, and a crowned child, but this is followed by a historically precise symbol of natural succession: eight Stuart kings,
"Kings being publike persons, by reasons of their office and authority, are as it were set …
Macbeth’s ambition becomes manifest when he kills Duncan, as the only means by which he can secure the loftiest title that the last carrying a mirror presumably designed to reflect James and his progeny, followed by the Stuart ancestor Banquo. All
upon a publike stage, in the sight of all the people; where all the beholders eyes are
the realm affords, that of king itself, is to murder the man who alone has the authority to confer titles. these children, and descendants, bloody or not, cruelly emphasise the fruitlessness of Macbeth's predicament, the fact that his
attentively bent to looke and pry in the least circumstance of their secretest drifts:
When he is king, Macbeth does not act in a way befitting his name. His determination to appropriate a name without childlessness ensures that his achievement and kingship has no future. The visions themselves represent the future, that future
Which should make Kings the more carefull not to harbour the secretest thought in their
acknowledging the social realities implied by the existence of names, amounts to a desire to exploit language without which Macbeth has tried in vain to make for himself, but in this play making the future legitimately depends on the making of
minde, but such as in the owne time they shall not be ashamed openly to avouch;
submitting himself to the demands of language. children.
assuring themselves that Time the mother of Veritie, will in the due season bring her
The ‘‘name of king’’ is viewed in Macbeth merely as an external accessory, a stolen vestment too ample for the man attempting owne daughter to perfection."
to wear it: "now does he feel his title Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe Upon a dwarfish thief." King James alludes to the metaphorical stage or scaffold on which kings are put and where they are “in the sight of all the
Other characters also refuse to acknowledge Macbeth’s status as monarch and persist in referring to him either by his clan people”. As public persons they are put on display, and they are judged by the critical eyes of their audience, so, King James
name or by insults, such as: ‘‘This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues". suggests, kings should be careful about what they say and how they conduct themselves.
With the accession of Malcolm at the conclusion of the play, the king’s voice once again merges with that of the people whose
nomination he has received, and the name of king is therefore restored to the possession not only of the particular individual
who bears it, but of the entire community in which he participates.