'Macbeth' - Regional Writers (3)

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  • Created by: Alasdair
  • Created on: 05-06-18 16:10
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  • 'Macbeth' - Regional Writers (3)
    • Succession
      • Kingship in medieval Scotland was elective and largely governed by tanistry, a process whereby a new king was chosen from a collateral rather than direct branch of the family
        • e.g. brother to brother, rather than father to son
        • Mode of succession was rivalled in period with promogeniture
      • Primogeniture
        • A rule of inheritance whereby an estate, or crown, passed from the father to their eldest son
        • Most prominent form of royal succession in early modern Europe
        • For James I, primogeniture was intimately tied to ideas of Divine Kingship, a doctrine that asserts that a monarch's authority derives directly from God's will
      • James I, Basilikon Doron, 1599
        • 'The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth, for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called gods'
    • Succession in 'Macbeth'
      • Divine Kingship
        • 2.3.113
          • 'His silver skin laced with his golden blood'
        • 2.3.68
          • 'the Lord's anointed temple'
      • 4.3.114
        • English Doctor account of King Edward's miraculous touch 'Such sanctity hath heaven given his had'
      • 1.4.33-43
        • Duncan: My plenteous joys, Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, and you whose places are the nearest, know We will establish our estate upon Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must Not unaccompanied invest him only, But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine On all deservers, From hence to Inverness, And bind us further to you.
          • Macbeth's reaction is usually portrayed as that of disappointment after this announcement
    • Henceforth be Earls
      • 5.9.28-30
        • Malcolm: My thanes and kinsmen, Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland In such an honour named.

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