April 22, 2013, 11:47 a.m. (Message 63971)
Does anybody have any information about the origins of the two dances Fair Donald, Book 29, and Donald Bane, Book 17? I am just curious to know why a rather obscure medieval 'King of the Scots' is commemorated by two dances, while the very much less obscure Macbeth of roughly the same era has no such recognition. Book 17 gives the origin of Donald Bane as Wilson's Companion 1816; Book 29 gives no clue about Fair Donald. I understand the RSCDS archive has no further information about either. Many thanks for any help that might be offered. Don Andrews
April 22, 2013, 1:37 p.m. (Message 63972, in reply to message 63971)
Donald Andrews wrote: > I am just curious to know why a rather obscure medieval 'King of the > Scots' is commemorated by two dances, while the very much less obscure > Macbeth of roughly the same era has no such recognition. The historical Macbeth, like most early Scottish monarchs, is pretty obscure. His modern non-obscurity mostly comes from Shakespeare's play, which as far as we can tell plays somewhat fast and loose with the life and times of the real Macbeth, and in any event does not exactly portray the king as a sterling paragon of honour and probity (to say nothing of the witchcraft). The title character in the play might thus possibly not provide the greatest conceivable inspiration for light entertainment such as country dances. (There are claims that the play itself, when it was new, was engineered to appeal to King James in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot. Holinshed's chronicle, which the Shakespeare play is largely based on, has Macbeth and Banquo conspiring to murder the incumbent king, Duncan. King James, being originally from Scotland, traced his Stuart ancestry back to Banquo – who most probably never actually existed, but was introduced by Boethius in the 16th century, and remained a popular, and convenient, concept in James's time – but of course it would never do for somebody like Shakespeare to publically paint the sitting monarch as the great-great-…-grandson of someone who had actually killed his own legitimate king. Hence the Bard preferred to instead make poor Mrs Macbeth into the conniving monster that she is widely perceived to have been today, and Banquo into an upstanding fellow who is uninvolved with the assassination of Duncan, generally comes across as the noble and moral foil to Macbeth's base ambition, ruthlessness and greed, and whom, later on in the play, Macbeth causes to be killed because his existence is too dangerous to M's own claim to the throne. Those were the times.) Now on the other hand Donald III (Donald Bane, or the »Donalbain« from the Scottish play) apparently wasn't what one might consider a saint, either, but having escaped the attentions of popular playwrights he didn't have the same kind of notoriety in the 18th century, when people were making up country dances. At any rate, in Donald's time as a monarch he was vastly more popular with the Scots, many of which had not been overly thrilled with the English/Norman leanings of his immediate predecessors, Malcolm Canmore and Duncan II, and this perhaps made him more eligible as the namesake for a dance or two later on. Anselm -- Anselm Lingnau, Mainz/Mayence, Germany ................. xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx There are two things in ordinary conversation which ordinary people dislike -- information and wit. -- Stephen Leacock
April 22, 2013, 6:12 p.m. (Message 63973, in reply to message 63972)
It probably isn't really there but one could associate bk 12s Reel of Glamis with MacBeth. I know I do. Bruce Herbold San Francisco
April 22, 2013, 6:18 p.m. (Message 63974, in reply to message 63971)
John Drewry wrote "Dunsinane." And I learned from the index that Shakespeare got it wrong; it's DunSINane, not DUNsinANE. Mike Briggs 1519 Storytown Road Oregon WI 53575-2521 USA +1 608 835 0914 (o) +1 608 770 2304 (m) +1 608 237 2379 (f)
April 22, 2013, 6:45 p.m. (Message 63975, in reply to message 63974)
Norma or Mike Briggs wrote: > John Drewry wrote "Dunsinane." And I learned from the index that > Shakespeare got it wrong; it's DunSINane, not DUNsinANE. Makes sense. In Gaelic, »dun« means »hill« (and, by extension, »fortress«), and often occurs as a prefix (i.e., Dunsomething). We say »DunDEE« rather than »DUNdee«, »DunFERMline« rather than »DUNfermLINE« and so on – consider Dunblane, Dunoon, Dunkeld and Dumbarton, all of which are stressed on the second syllable. Anselm -- Anselm Lingnau, Mainz/Mayence, Germany ................. xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx I'm a Harvard professor. Trust me: The students don't speak this language. -- Larry Lessig, on »The Social Network«, scripted by Aaron Sorkin