The Thanes in Macbeth: Fealty and obedience to The True Lawe of Free Monarchies

Abstract

The disaffection scene and the English court scene present a number of conundrums to scholars and are often cut or partially cut and moved by performance directors. Such cutting leaves many important aspects of contemporary kingship unexplored and risks diminishing our understanding of the final scene. In whom does Lennox confide and what do we learn from the confrontation between Macduff and Malcolm? Stage anonymity is another puzzle: excepting Ross and Macduff, the thanes are never addressed by name and no one outside of the theatre company could possibly know who's who until after publication of the Folio. Although scholars agree that Macbeth has been subject to any number of cuts and interpolations, we can only speculate about the content of the manuscript when first submitted to the Revels Office. Macbeth is partly a Scottish history play. But the underlying themes – the limits of kingship and subjects' rights – were certain to have alerted the Revels Office. By contrasting the legalities underlying the battlefield slaying of the reigning monarch at the end of Richard III with those at the end of Macbeth it appears that King James' contemporary writings have influenced but not dictated Shakespeare's historiography. This article examines whether these scenes, which clarify the rightful line of succession, are also the remnants of a lost fealty leitmotif.