![]() In Holinshed's narrative, attributes of King Duff are transposed onto the MacDuff mormaer from Macbeth's era. This association not only secured the Duff family influence in the peerage, but also helped ensure their position as one of the largest landowners in Scotland, heading countless feudal baronies including the barony of MacDuff, named for James Duff, 2nd Earl Fife. Various Fife titles were held by the Duffs until as recently as 1929 when the dignity passed to the Carnegie descendants, where it remains in use today. In 1759, his descendent William Duff was granted the historic Celtic Title of “Fife”, resurrecting the title and tying the Duffs of Northeast Scotland, both to the their 11th century Lowland ancestors, and to Shakespeare’s MacDuff. In 1404 David Duff received a charter in Aberdeenshire from Robert III of Scotland. Few could determine where Duff Family history began and historical fiction ended, working to the benefit of the Duffs as their reach expanded into Northeast Scotland. Not only did history influence Shakespeare’s work, but the work itself influenced the role of future Duffs. The ruins of Macduff's Castle lie in the village of East Wemyss next to the cemetery. Their clan – the Clan MacDuff – remained the most powerful family in Fife in the Middle Ages. Due to the Irish use of tanistry, Duff's immediate descendants did not become rulers of Alba, and instead became mormaers of Fife. ![]() The Orygynale Cronykil suggests that Duff was murdered. In John of Fordun's work, the reign of Duff is portrayed as having suffered from pervasive witchcraft. Historically, Duff was a 10th century King of Alba. These served as the basis for the account given in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), on whose narratives of King Duff and King Duncan Shakespeare in part based Macbeth. In the end, he succeeds in beheading him.The overall plot that would serve as the basis for Macbeth is first seen in the writings of two chroniclers of Scottish history, John of Fordun, whose prose Chronica Gentis Scotorum was begun about 1363, and Andrew of Wyntoun's Scots verse Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, written no earlier than 1420. He tears Macbeth’s last hope from him by revealing that he was the issue of a Caesarean birth, and threatens him with abject humiliation. Finding him, he wastes little time in dialogue, preferring to trust to his sword. ![]() He leads a part of Malcolm’s army, but at the battle of Dunsinane soon abandons them while on a single-minded quest to find and kill Macbeth himself. This grief becomes his chief spur against Macbeth. Though he left them in Scotland, he remains fond of his wife and children, and is devastated when he learns that they have been slaughtered on his account. The revelation that Malcolm was merely testing him leaves him a touch off-kilter. A noble and ethical idealist, he is horrified by Malcolm’s listing of his own vices, and finally must conclude that the young man is no more worthy of the throne than Macbeth. His wife accuses him of lacking natural human feeling and of being a coward for having fled. Having refused to attend a feast of Macbeth’s, he is cast into disgrace, and travels to England to beg King Edward to help Malcolm overthrow the usurper. Though he accepts the explanation that Duncan’s attendants committed the murder at his sons’ instigation, he refuses to attend Macbeth’s coronation. Commanded by Duncan to visit him early in the morning at Macbeth’s castle, he discovers the King’s body.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |