Manchester University Press
10 The poetics of succession, 1587–1605
-
Richard A. McCabe
Abstract
This chapter analyses the ways in which James VI and his supporters used his authorial persona to advance his claims to the English throne at a time when open discussion of the succession was forbidden in England. Through indirection and oblique allusion, one form of ‘authority’ was made to insinuate another. To promote the son of Mary Queen of Scots as her executioner’s legitimate successor was no small task, but progressive appropriation of the Arthurian mythology central to Tudor iconography helped to present the Stuarts as their dynastic heirs in supposed accordance with a providential plan to restore the (imagined) unity of ancient ‘Britain’. Insofar as this notion of union became central to James’ self-presentation, the poetic fictions that promoted his success ultimately came to define his failure.
Abstract
This chapter analyses the ways in which James VI and his supporters used his authorial persona to advance his claims to the English throne at a time when open discussion of the succession was forbidden in England. Through indirection and oblique allusion, one form of ‘authority’ was made to insinuate another. To promote the son of Mary Queen of Scots as her executioner’s legitimate successor was no small task, but progressive appropriation of the Arthurian mythology central to Tudor iconography helped to present the Stuarts as their dynastic heirs in supposed accordance with a providential plan to restore the (imagined) unity of ancient ‘Britain’. Insofar as this notion of union became central to James’ self-presentation, the poetic fictions that promoted his success ultimately came to define his failure.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I v
- Dedication vi
- Contents vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xii
- Abbreviations and conventions xiii
- Genealogical charts xiv
-
Part I Contexts and approaches
- 1 Introduction 3
- 2 The earlier Elizabethan succession question revisited 20
-
Part II Religion and politics
- 3 The Puritan, the Jesuit and the Jacobean succession 47
- 4 Taking it to the street? 71
- 5 Bishop Richard Bancroft and the succession 92
-
Part III The court
- 6 Essex and the ‘popish plot’ 115
- 7 The Scottish King and the English court 134
-
Part IV Imaginative writings and the wider public world
- 8 The succession in sermons, news and rumour 155
- 9 Hamlet and succession 173
- 10 The poetics of succession, 1587–1605 192
-
Part V Britain and beyond
- 11 Polemic and prejudice 215
- 12 Brinkmanship and bad luck 236
- 13 A view from abroad 257
- 14 States, monarchs and dynastic transitions 276
- Afterword 295
- Select bibliography 304
- Index 314
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I v
- Dedication vi
- Contents vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xii
- Abbreviations and conventions xiii
- Genealogical charts xiv
-
Part I Contexts and approaches
- 1 Introduction 3
- 2 The earlier Elizabethan succession question revisited 20
-
Part II Religion and politics
- 3 The Puritan, the Jesuit and the Jacobean succession 47
- 4 Taking it to the street? 71
- 5 Bishop Richard Bancroft and the succession 92
-
Part III The court
- 6 Essex and the ‘popish plot’ 115
- 7 The Scottish King and the English court 134
-
Part IV Imaginative writings and the wider public world
- 8 The succession in sermons, news and rumour 155
- 9 Hamlet and succession 173
- 10 The poetics of succession, 1587–1605 192
-
Part V Britain and beyond
- 11 Polemic and prejudice 215
- 12 Brinkmanship and bad luck 236
- 13 A view from abroad 257
- 14 States, monarchs and dynastic transitions 276
- Afterword 295
- Select bibliography 304
- Index 314
