Blood and Crowns - Kingship vs. Tyranny
Imagine, for a moment, that the universe is a finely tuned clock. Every cog, every spring, every hand has its precise, God-given place. Now, imagine someone smashes the mainspring with a hammer. Hello. I'm Arthur, your Director of Studies, and today we're looking at the ultimate smashed clock: William Shakespeare's Macbeth. But we aren't just talking about murder or ambition today. We are talking about politics. Specifically, the Jacobean obsession with kingship versus tyranny. When we talk about Macbeth, we usually focus on the witches, or Lady Macbeth washing her hands. Why politics? Because, Chloe, to Shakespeare's audience in 1606, Macbeth wasn't just a thriller; it was a political warning siren. To understand this play, you have to understand a concept called the Divine Right of Kings. Right. This is the idea that the King is chosen directly by God, isn't it? Exactly. Under the Divine Right, the monarch is God's deputy on earth. To rebel against the King isn't just treason. It is sacrilege. It's a sin against God himself. And in 1606, King James the First was sitting on the throne. James was a massive advocate of this theory. He even wrote a book about it. And he'd just survived the Gunpowder Plot the year before, so he was probably feeling a bit twitchy about treason. Immensely twitchy. So, Shakespeare writes a play that asks a fundamental question: What happens to a country when a legitimate, God-appointed King is murdered, and a usurping tyrant takes his place? The short answer? The entire universe breaks. Let's look at the man who wore the crown first: King Duncan.
Duncan is Shakespeare's blueprint for the ideal, legitimate king. When you read Duncan's lines, listen to the imagery he uses. It is constantly about growth, nature, and nurturing. Oh, like when he speaks to Macbeth in Act One, Scene Four? He says, "I have begun to plant thee, and will labour to make thee full of growing." Spot on. Planting. A legitimate king is like a master gardener. He cultivates his kingdom. He rewards loyalty, and under his rule, the country blossoms. But wait, isn't Duncan actually a bit naive? I mean, he trusts the previous Thane of Cawdor, who betrays him. And then he completely trusts Macbeth, who literally murders him in his sleep. Is Shakespeare saying a good king is a weak king? Brilliant question. It's a common trap to think Duncan is just a naive old man. But to a Jacobean audience, Duncan's absolute trust isn't a weakness; it's proof of his natural goodness. Deception is so alien to his holy nature that he literally cannot comprehend it. He says of the old Cawdor, "There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face." Duncan embodies order. When Macbeth murders him, it's not just a political assassination. Look at how Macduff reacts when he discovers the body. "Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope the Lord's anointed temple..." The Lord's anointed temple. That is pure Divine Right of Kings right there. Macbeth hasn't just killed a bloke named Duncan. He has broken into God's own sanctuary. And the consequences of that are immediate, and they are cosmic.
The moment Duncan's blood is spilled, the natural order collapses. The Great Chain of Being - the Jacobean hierarchy of the universe - is shattered. Is this why all those weird, supernatural things happen right after the murder? The Old Man and Ross talking about it going dark during the daytime? Exactly. "By the clock 'tis day, and yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp." And what happens to Duncan's horses? They turn wild and eat each other. Which is delightfully gross. It is gross, but it's deeply symbolic. The horses, the most beautiful and obedient animals, turn unnatural and cannibalistic. Because the King, the head of the natural body, has been severed. And this brings us to Macbeth's style of rule. If Duncan is a gardener who plants seeds, what is Macbeth? A butcher. Macduff literally calls him a "hell-kite", and Scotland later gets described as a diseased body. There's that great line in Act Four: "I think our country sinks beneath the yoke; it weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash is added to her wounds." It bleeds. Notice how the imagery shifts from water and planting to blood and disease. Macbeth has no Divine Right. He has no legitimate claim. Therefore, he cannot rule by love or natural authority. He can only rule by terror. He relies on a network of spies, doesn't he? "There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant fee'd." It sounds like a modern police state. It's absolutely a paranoid dictatorship. A legitimate king is a father to his nation. A tyrant treats his nation as an enemy to be subdued. Macbeth's Scotland isn't a country any more; it's a slaughterhouse. He murders his best friend, Banquo. He slaughters Macduff's innocent wife and babes. Because he's incredibly insecure. The crown doesn't fit him. Yes. Angus says it perfectly in Act Five: "Now does he feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief." The clothes of the King simply do not fit the body of a tyrant.
So, Scotland is bleeding to death. How does Shakespeare cure the patient? He brings in the legitimate heir: Malcolm. Act Four, Scene Three. The scene in England. To be honest, Arthur, my students always want to skip this scene. It's incredibly long, and there's no murder in it. I know. Everyone wants to get back to the witches or the sleepwalking. But Act Four, Scene Three is the ideological core of the entire play. It is a masterclass in what makes a good king. This is where Malcolm tests Macduff, right? He pretends to be even more evil and corrupt than Macbeth, just to see how Macduff reacts. Exactly. Malcolm says he's greedy, lustful, and completely lacking in the king-becoming graces. Which are, "Justice, verity, temperance, stableness, bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness..." It's basically a checklist for King James. It is a checklist. Malcolm is proving that, unlike his father Duncan, he isn't naive. He understands that bad men exist. By testing Macduff, he shows political astuteness. He has Duncan's royal blood, but he also has the political survival skills his father lacked. There's also that really specific moment in this scene where they talk about the King of England, Edward the Confessor, healing sick people just by touching them. What's that about? Ah, the King's Evil. This was a real disease - scrofula. In Jacobean times, people believed that a true, divinely appointed monarch could cure this disease simply with their touch. Shakespeare puts this in the play to create the ultimate contrast. King Edward in England is a healer. His touch cures the sick. Back in Scotland, Macbeth is a disease. His touch brings death. So when Malcolm returns to Scotland with the English army, he's basically bringing the cure. Precisely. He even calls himself and his allies the "medicine of the sickly weal." They are coming to purge the disease of tyranny from the body of Scotland.
When the play ends, and Macbeth's severed head is carried onto the stage... ...it isn't just the end of a villain. It is the restoration of the universe. Malcolm takes his rightful place, and what is the very first thing he does? He rewards his loyal friends. He makes his thanes and kinsmen into Earls. Yes. He begins planting again, just like his father. He talks about things that are "planted newly with the time." The circle is complete. From the natural order of Duncan, through the unnatural nightmare of Macbeth, and finally, back to the restored order of Malcolm. When you write about Macbeth in your exams, do not just call Macbeth ambitious. Go deeper. Contrast his unnatural, bloody tyranny with the holy, healing, and legitimate kingship of Duncan and Malcolm. Show the examiner that you understand the Divine Right of Kings, and how a crime against the crown was a crime against nature itself. So, Macbeth isn't just a story about a man losing his mind. It's about a country losing its soul. Couldn't have said it better myself. That's all for today's session. I've been your Director of Studies, Arthur, joined by the brilliant Chloe. Review your notes, look closely at that vital scene in England, and we will see you next time. Keep reading, and keep questioning.