Three powers in the tyranny controversy at the accession of James I Stuart

For citation: Mikeladze N., Ralph Metlow. Three powers in the tyranny controversy at the accession of James I Stuart // Mediascope. 2021. Issue 1. Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/2692

DOI: 10.30547/mediascope.1.2021.4

@ Natalia E. Mikeladze

Doctor of Philology, Professor at the Chair of Foreign Journalism and Literature, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia) fornatalia@bk.ru

Abstract. The image of a tyrant and the problem of tyranny run through all of Shakespeare's work. In the Jacobian period he considered this topic beyond the context pre-determined by the chroniclers. Controversy about good rule and tyranny broke out with the accession of the new Stuart dynasty in 1603. The parties involved - royal, ecclesiastical and “third” powers (humanist artists) - allow us to speak about its sample character. King James in Basilikon Doron (1599, 1603) revived himself the discussion. The Bishop of Winchester took part in the Sermon at the Coronation (1603), and the playwright William Shakespeare participated in the problem play Measure for Measure (1603/04). For a king a tyrant is a usurper and oppressor of his subjects; for a bishop, he is an apostate from God. Bishop Bilson finds his model of an ideal king in the Old Testament, King James - in Aristotle and in the New Testament, admitting popular resistance to the tyrant. Shakespeare's ideas keep up with the traditions of medieval common piety, are closer to the ideas of James I, but go further. He defines tyranny through the equality of men before God and the law (Rom. 2:1). In Measure for Measure the topic is developed in doctrina, in Macbeth the theory is accompanied by an example. Both of these plays will be published only in the posthumous Folio 1623. Measure for Measure deserves a special place among the works “against tyrants”. It brings Epistle to Romans back to its true meaning.

Keywords: tyranny, Basilikon Doron, Bishop Bilson, Sermon at the Coronation, Epistle to Romans, “against tyrants”, Measure for Measure

Notes

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