Kings and queens were not simply characters in Shakespeare’s plays – they were also key figures in his life. In a previous post, we explored the importance of Queen Elizabeth I. As his royal supporter, Elizabeth watched Shakespeare’s plays and (rumour has it) even commissioned him to write The Merry Wives of Windsor. By the same token, Elizabeth’s successor in 1603 – James I – became Shakespeare’s patron; in honour of this, the playwright’s theatre company was called The King’s Men. More mysterious, however, is the influence of James I’s mother on Shakespeare’s creative vision.
Mary Queen of Scots (born in 1542 ) endures in history as a dramatic and polarizing figure. Her reign in Scotland was marked by power struggles with the noble families of the land and, indeed, her half-brother. These tensions gave rise to the murders of Mary’s beloved secretary, David Rizzio, and her (less-beloved) husband, Lord Darnley. Unfairly or not, her political rivals accused Mary herself of collusion in the latter crime. (Learn more about Mary’s reign here). Following her downfall in Scotland, Mary sought sanctuary in England under the protection of her cousin Elizabeth I. Perceiving the former as a dangerous rival for the English crown, Elizabeth imprisoned Mary for 19 years, until her execution at Fotheringay Castle in 1587.
Such a “brave, romantic, doomed queen,” in the words of historian Antonia Fraser, could not help but inspire Shakespeare… whether directly or implicitly. For example, biographer Stefan Zweig argues that Shakespeare “was dramatizing and sublimating the tragedy of Mary” and her troubled reign in the violence of “that Scottish play” Macbeth. So, too, does centuries-old lore tell us that Shakespeare envisioned Mary as a seductive and dangerous siren in these lines from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “A mermaid on a dolphin’s back / uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath that / Certain stars shot madly from their spheres / To hear the sea-maid’s music” (Act 2, Scene 1).
Such allusions to Mary speak to her constant hold on the popular imagination, a fascination with her story that has never faded. And however subtly, Shakespeare – that finest chronicler of human nature – contributed to the mythology of this mysterious queen
Image: ‘Mary Queen of Scots, 1542-1587’, unknown artist.
(c) National Galleries of Scotland.