I.e., Hamlet, Lear, and Macbeth, like the frame of The Arcadia, are riddled 
with the anxieties of The Succession.

On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:02:46 +0100
  Penny M <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thank you for the Denmark connection - and the Polish. Wasn't Philip an
> elected count of Poland? But see also his Defence of Leicester, in which 
>he
> claims that John Dudley was descended from the house of Berkeley which was
> itself descended ‘lineally’ from a King of Denmark. Even while stressing
> that in heraldic law, succession rightly lies with the one who descends 
>from
> the oldest sister. (Not with Elizabeth, then: I think the Defence is no
> naïve mistake, as some have claimed.)
> Penny.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
>From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of James C. Nohrnberg
> Sent: 24 July 2008 18:12
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Elective Monarchy lights on Denmark
> 
> This sounds right to me.  The republican strain is a stalking-horse, but 
> (for some literary reflections of all of this) Hamlet's dying voice is for 
> the election of Fortinbras, (as formerly Hamlet deplored the election [by 
> some kind of default] of Claudius [Ham. V.ii.65], and as earlier seems 
>about
> 
> to light upon Laertes in a coup ["The rabble call him lord; / And .... The 
> ratifiers and props of every word, ' / They cry 'Choose we:  Laertes shall 
> be king:' Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds:" 
> IV.v.102ff.).
> 
> Meanwhile Fortinbras has been stalking Poland, where the monarchy was 
> likewise elective--famously or infamously, apparently.  Elizabeth's own 
> voice is said to have been, sotto voce, for James:  for his succession, 
>but 
> also, in a way, for his election in lieu of Tudor issue lineally extract. 
> See, for the legendary character of the Polish constitution, and the 
> general rule (or practice) of elective monarchy amongst Germanic peoples, 
>to
> 
> which English "vox populi" Republicans might appeal as precedent, esp. in 
> the deposition of Charles I, Earl R. Wasserman, "The Meaning of 'Poland' 
>in 
> [Dryden's] _The Medal_" in Mod. Lang. Notes 73:3 (March 1958).  Cp. also 
> Hamlet III.ii.356,  "You have the voice of the king himself / For your 
> succession" with Ros.&Guild. on "The cease of majesty" as a "massy wheel" 
> (Ham. III.iii.11 ff.) creating a gulf-like power-vacuum (implicitly, 
> perhaps, making for the emergence of elective [rather than dynastic] 
> monarchic politics).
> 
> On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:14:54 +0100
>  andrew zurcher <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> The disputation at Oxford in 1566 was probably not, as Colin says, an orgy
> 
>>of republicanism (led by a demagorgue?), but I still suspect that the whole
> 
>>event was pretty perilously politically charged. Parliamentary debate over 
>>the issue of the queen's marriage and succession had issued in two 
>>petitions in 1563, both of which the queen had answered according to 
>>contemporary accounts angrily, and another (perhaps informal?) petition in 
>>1566, which provoked a response preserved by none other than Harington (in 
>>which E promised to be no step-dame but a 'natural mother'). The prospect 
>>of the 'election' of a monarch after the death of a dhildless queen, the 
>>last of Henry VIII's children, was a real one. Thus a conclusion in favour 
>>of succession was tantamount to an exhortation to marry and procreate -- 
>>which is just the same old heavyhandedness that angered Elizabeth in 
>>Parliament, now at arm's length. In other words, the politically sensitive 
>>part of this disputation was likely not the argument in favour of electio 
>>(a stalking-horse), but that in favour of successio!
>> 
>> az
>> 
>>> Leche of Merton asked 'An Princeps declarandus esset electione potius 
>>> quam successione' The same Leche 'elegantem orationem habuit contra 
>>> successionem et pro electione in creando Rege' (238). A Mr Matthew also 
>>> spoke for 'electio'. Then 'ad extremum Mr Cooper Magdel. pro successione 
>>> determinavit,cum adjectione maximi periculi si Regnum relinqueretur de 
>>> successione incertum' -so it probably wasn't an orgy of republicanism, 
>>> what with all the students crying out 'vivat regina' and all.
> 
> [log in to unmask]
> James Nohrnberg
> Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
> Univ. of Virginia
> P.O Box 400121
> Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121

[log in to unmask]
James Nohrnberg
Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
Univ. of Virginia
P.O Box 400121
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121