Shakespeare on Heads of State

Macduff

Malcolm

During these months when citizens of the US, and of numerous other nations, are examining qualifications for heads of state, Shakespeare, who knew a thing or two about politics, expresses thoughts that might resonate with us.

In Macbeth (4, 3, 1–139), Macduff and Malcolm have a complicated argument about "king-becoming graces."

In the midst of what Malcolm calls their "warranted quarrel," he articulates a list of ideal virtues for a head of state:

           ...justice, verity, temp'rance, stableness,

Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,

Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude....

Earlier in the argument, however, Malcolm has lamented:

           I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;
           It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
           Is added to her wounds....

And Macduff has earlier confessed despair:

            I have lost my hopes.

In a list that contrasts radically with his enumeration of "king-becoming graces", Malcolm characterizes "the particulars of vice" in high places:

Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,

Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin

That has a name....

Macduff equates a sovereign's lack of self-restraint with "tyranny"*, which leads to downfall:

                      ...Boundless intemperance

            In nature is a tyranny. It hath been

            Th'untimely emptying of the happy throne

            And fall of many kings.

As their "warranted quarrel" subsides, Macduff complains that he is left conflicted:

Such welcome and unwelcome things at once
'Tis hard to reconcile.

He exclaims:

O nation miserable!...
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again...?

Malcolm concludes the Scene with a dispirited couplet: 

                    Receive what cheer you may:

          The night is long that never finds the day.

__________

*See Stephen Greenblatt, Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics (New York and London, W. W. Norton, 2018). I am grateful to Professor Stanley Crowe for calling my attention to this laudable book.

*****