"All Crowns Are Hollow": Impending death's effects on Shakespearean monarchs
In 2019, Shakespeare Magazine from the UK published a short piece called, " All Crowns are Hollow: The scheming and backstabbing politicians of today would do well to ponder the fate of Shakespeare’s Kings ." [Image from The Hollow Crown , British TV series, via Wikipedia . Fair use.] The piece includes the observation, "Very few of the kings in Shakespeare ever get to do any actual ‘kinging’. Instead they fight tooth and nail to get to the throne – often committing heinous crimes like murder in the process – and then they die." While the title of this piece points to some usefulness for "scheming and backstabbing politicians of today," we might also consider how Shakespeare's plays reflect the playwright's (and his time's?) attitudes and skepticism about monarchs. Many of Shakespeare's monarchs are shown in a bad light: - Macbeth... - Richard II is a poor king, deposed. - Henry IV: The Biblical King David did not want to kill...