Simon Rodberg                                                                                                TSI 2006

 

Basilikon Doron

or, his Majesties instructions to his Dearest Sonne, Henry the Prince

At London : Imprinted by E. Allde for E. VV[hite] and others of the company of the Stationers, 1603

STC 14354

 

Pages 81-82:

“for your behaviour to your Wife, the Scripture can best give you Counsell therin. Treate her as your owne flesh, command her as her Lorde, cherish her as your helper, rule her as your pupill, & please her in all things reasonable; but teach her not to be curious in thinges that belonges her not. Ye are the heade, she is your body: It is your office to command, and hers to obey; but yet with such a sweete harmony, as she should be as readie to obey, as ye to commande; as willing to followe, as ye to go before: your love beeing whollie knit unto her, and all her affections lovingly bent to followe your will.

And to conclude, keepe specially three rules with your Wife: first, suffer her never to medle with the politick governement of the common-weale, but holde her at the Oeconomick rule of the house, and yet all to be subjecte to your direction….”

 

Basilikon Doron – Greek for “royal gift” – was written in 1599 by James VI of Scotland, soon to become James I of England, in the form of advice for his son on kingship. The subjects treated range from international relations and civic administration to religion and philosophy. James also had advice closer to home: like many English authors of his time, he counseled his son to treat his wife “as your own flesh,” and to “command her as her Lorde.” As a king, he added, “suffer her never to meddle with the politic government of the common-weal.”

 

Teaching Ideas

 

Simon Rodberg / Cesar Chavez Public Charter School / Washington, DC

 

After reading Basilikon Doron, compare Brutus’s attempt to keep his assassination plot from Portia in Julius Caesar 2.1 to Macbeth’s attempt to keep his assassination plot from Lady Macbeth in Macbeth 3.2. (This lesson could be done with only one of the scenes as well.) What strategies do the women use to convince their husbands to share their concerns? Why do the husbands resist? Who is right? Encourage students to examine how their own stereotypes and preconceptions about relationships contribute to their reactions.

 

Caleen Sinnette Jennings / American University / Washington, DC

 

Ask students to write about boundaries in their own relationships: what do they expect to talk about, and not talk about, with their parents? their siblings? their male friends? their female friends? their teachers? their significant others? Discuss the responses and analyze them. Compare those boundaries, and the reasons for them, to the boundaries set by James. Compare the students’ boundaries and James’s to what is discussed, and not discussed, by pairs of characters in Shakespeare’s plays – Lady Macbeth and Macbeth in Macbeth, Brutus and Portia or Brutus and Cassius in Julius Caesar, Hamlet and Gertrude in Hamlet, Romeo and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, etc.

 

Susan Gibson / Cumberland Valley High School / Mechanicsburg, PA

 

Discuss James’s rules for marriage, and ask students to imagine how a woman who did not follow these rules might be treated. Be sure to keep students close to James’s text! Then discuss the women in Shakespeare’s plays who do not act according to these rules (Portia in Julius Caesar, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Rosalind in As You Like It, etc.), and the men who love them. What happens to these women and their relationships? Encourage students to go beyond their first responses to close examination of the texts.