King Duncan

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Duncan, King of Scotland.

Read by Joshua Christensen.

Malcolm, son of Duncan.

Read by M.

B.

Donald Bain, son of Duncan.

Read by Ellis Christoph.

just add that i'm thrilled to be here and and honored very much looking forward to learning with you all today so if i could speaking of the city of david i want to spend a few minutes talking about who that city is named you might have noticed over the past couple of years year and a half or so that every few months there seem to be these protests proclaiming that Americans stand strongly against kings, citing, of course, the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, emphasizing we, the people.

And we know, of course, as the founding fathers, the preamble to the Constitution, excuse me, we, the people.

As the founding fathers put it in the Declaration, the history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states.

In other words, the very enterprise of America stands strongly against kings.

Now, whether you attend those rallies or you think the people that attend those rallies are totally wrong, you would probably, if you stopped and thought about it, agree with those on the other side that you are against the institution of monarchy.

Really, religious liberty does not exist in the ancient world.

Religious toleration doesn't exist in the ancient world.

You get some early church fathers who make pretty good arguments about religious liberty for all.

Right.

When King Duncan is murdered, Shakespeare doesn't just present a dead body.

He presents the corpse with intense vibrating political ambivalence.

How so? Walk me through the specific imagery there.

Symbolism was familiar enough that Shakespeare could use it without having to explain it to his audience.

In Macbeth, an owl's cry occurs around the murder of King Duncan.

The sound becomes part of the supernatural atmosphere surrounding the murder.

He was using that dark, ominous symbolism to put the owl in there, which is completely...

A year or two before Edward the Confessor began to rule England, a battle was won in Scotland against a Norwegian king by two generals named Macbeth and Banquo.

After the battle, the generals walked together towards Forres in Elginshire, where Duncan, King of Scotland, was awaiting them.

While they were crossing a lonely heath, they saw three bearded women, sisters, hand in hand, withered in appearance and wild in their attire.

"Speak, who are you?" demanded Macbeth.

One of them thanked Macbeth in the king's name for his military services, and the other said, "He bade me call you chieftain of Cawdor." Macbeth then learned that the man who had yesterday borne that title was to die for treason, and he could not help thinking, "The third witch called me king that is to be." "Banquo," he said, "you see that the witches spoke truth concerning me.

Do you not believe, therefore, that your child and grandchild will be kings?" Banquo frowned.

Duncan had two sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, and he deemed it disloyal to hope that his son Fleance should rule Scotland.

He told Macbeth that the witches might have intended to tempt them both into villainy by their prophecies concerning the throne.

[laughs]

And I said, "You know, choice is such a difficult thing, isn't it? Just finally making a choice." Do you know what she said? "Kierkegaard has a very interesting essay on that."

[laughs]

"Wow," I said.

And then that was the king of Scotland in Macbeth.

King Duncan.

King Duncan before Macbeth became the king.

And so the hunter who has a blood feud with Demona... was the king of Scotland in the Macbeth play, Macbeth.

And the character Macbeth eventually comes across Demona and is like, I hate the hunter, who is King Duncan.

You hate the hunter.

You just know him as the hunter.

He

The freedom of choice, the liberty that every human enjoys and that shapes each person's ultimate destiny is a quintessentially Christian concept.

Whereas Oedipus Rex contains horrible deeds done in ignorance, Macbeth dramatizes a deed done with full recognition of its maliciousness when he kills King Duncan.

Macbeth is tempted, Chesterton goes on to say.

He's tempted, but he's not driven by a destiny.

It's in Act 1, Scene 7.

Throughout the first act, Macbeth, told by the weird sisters that he will become king and wishing to be king, thinks about the various ways that this can happen.

And the thought of murdering King Duncan keeps insinuating itself.

But late in Act 1, in the seventh scene, Macbeth comes out on stage alone, talks through all the reasons why this would be a terrible idea, and resolves not to kill the king.

A year or two before Edward the Confessor began to rule England, a battle was won in Scotland against a Norwegian king by two generals named Macbeth and Banquo.

After the battle, the generals walked together towards Forres in Elginshire, where Duncan, King of Scotland, was awaiting them.

While they were crossing a lonely heath, they saw three bearded women, sisters hand in hand, withered in appearance and wild in their attire.

"Speak, who are you?" demanded Macbeth.

One of them thanked Macbeth in the king's name for his military services, and the other said, "He bade me call you chieftain of Cawdor." Macbeth then learned that the man who had yesterday worn that title was to die for treason, and he could not help thinking, "The third witch called me king that is to be." "Banquo," he said, "you see that the witches spoke truth concerning me.

Do you not believe, therefore, that your child and grandchild will be kings?" Banquo frowned.

Duncan had two sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, and he deemed it disloyal to hope that his son Fleance should rule Scotland.

He told Macbeth that the witches might have intended to tempt them both into villainy by their prophecies concerning the throne.