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
|