King Lear
As it was played before the King’s Majesty at White-Hall, upon S. Stephen’s night, in Christmas
Hollidaies.
St Stephen’s Night: December 26th. St Stephen was one of Jesus’ disciples and the first Christian
martyr. It is ‘Boxing Day’ when it was traditional to break open the parish poor boxes and distirbute
their contents to the needy. It was also the day on which the rich and powerful were supposed to
honour their charitable obligations and show hospitality to ‘houseless heads’. The story of Good King
Wenceslas (‘on the feast of Stephen’) is also important: folklore tells of the encounter between a good
king and a beggar during which the king is shows his Christian generosity.
King James VI and I, Baslikon Doron (‘The King’s Gift’) 1603
WHOM-to can so rightly appertain this Book of instructions to a Prince in all the points of his calling,
as well general, as a Christian towards God; as particular, as a King towards his people? Whom-to, I
say, can it so justly appertain, as unto you my dearest Son? [Prince Henry, James’ eldest son] Since I
the author thereof, as your natural Father, must be careful for your godly and virtuous education, as
my eldest Son, and the first fruits of God’s blessing towards me in thy posterity: and as a King must
provide for your training up in all the points of a King’s Office; since ye are my natural and lawful
successor therein: that being rightly informed hereby, of the weight of your burthen, ye may in time
begin to consider, that being borne to be a king, ye are rather borne to onus [burden, responsibility],
then honos [honour, renown]: not excelling all your People so far in rank and honour, as in daily care
and hazardous pains-taking, for the dutiful administration of that great office, that God hath laid upon
your shoulders […]
And in case it please God to provide you to all these three Kingdoms, make your eldest son Isaac
[Abraham’s eldest son], leaving him all your kingdoms; and provide the rest with private possessions:
Otherways by dividing your kingdoms, ye shall leave the seed of division and discord among your
posterity; as befell by this Isle, by the division and assignment thereof, to the three sons of Brutus,
Locrine, Albanact and Camber.
King James’ Speech to Parliament 1609
Estate of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth; for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon
earth, and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called gods […] In the Scriptures
kings are called the gods, and so their power after a certain relation compared to the divine power.
Kings are also compared to fathers of families; for a king is truly parens patriae, the politic father of
his people. And lastly, kings are compared to the head of this microcosm of the body of man.
Kings are justly calls gods, for that they exercise a manner or resemblance of divine power upon
earth; for if you will consider the attributes to God, you shall see how they agree in the person of a
king. God hath power to create or destroy, make war or unmake at his pleasure, to give life or send
death, to judge all and to be judged nor accountable to none, to raise low things and to make high
things low at his pleasure, and to God are both soul and body due. And the like power have kings:
they make and unmake their subjects, they have power of raising and casting down, of life and of
death, judges over all their subjects and in all causes and yet accountable to none but God only. They
have power to exalt low things and abase high things, and make of their subjects, like men at the
chess, -- a pawn to take a bishop or a knight -- and to cry up or down any of their subjects, as they do
their money. And to the King is due both the affection of the soul and the service of the body of his
subjects.
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (1532)
I say, then, that in hereditary states accustomed to the rule of their prince’s family there are fewer
difficulties in maintaining them than in new states; for it suffices simply not to break ancient customs,
and then to suit one’s actions to unexpected events; in this manner, if such a prince is of ordinary
ability he will always maintain his state unless some extraordinary and inordinate force deprive him of
it […] Because a Prince by birth has fewer reasons and less need to harm his subjects, it is natural that
he should be more loved; and if no unusual vices make him hated, it is reasonable and natural that he
will be well liked by them.
But it is the new principality that causes difficulties. In the first place, if it is not completely new but
is instead an acquisition (so that the two parts together may be called mixed), its difficulties derive
from one natural problem inherent in all new principalities: men gladly change their masters, thinking
to better themselves: and this belief causes them to take arms against their ruler; but they fool
themselves in this, since with experience they see that things have become worse [...]
A prince must be cautious in believing and in acting, nor should be afraid of his own shadow; and he
should proceed in such a manner, tempered by prudence and humanity, so that too much trust may not
render him imprudent nor too much distrust render him intolerable. From this arises an argument:
whether it is better to be loved than to be feared, or the contrary. I reply that one should like to be both
one and the other; but since it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer to be feared than loved
[…]
It is not unknown to me that many have held, and still hold, the opinion that the things of this world
are, in a manner, controlled by fortune and by God, that men with their wisdom cannot control them
and, on the contrary, that men can have no remedy whatsoever for them […] Nevertheless, in order
that our free will be not extinguished, I judge it to be true that fortune is an arbiter of one half of our
actions, but that she still leaves the control of the other half, or almost that, to us […]
Since fortune changes and men remain set in their ways, men will succeed when the two are in
harmony and fail when they are not in accord. I am certainly convinced of this that it is better to be
impetuous than cautious, because fortune is a woman, and it is necessary in order to keep her down, to
beat her and to struggle with her. And it is seen she more often allows herself to be taken over by men
who are impetuous than by those who make cold advances; and then being a woman, she is always the
friend of the young men, for they are less cautious, more aggressive, and they command her with
more audacity.