James (VI) I, king, voice, decorum, libel, body politic, satire
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53
clear that there is a distinction between the princely decorum of the king’s “own person” and the incivility of responding “in a style of scorn and sport” and implies that the two can be bridged by a mediator delivering a response in the king’s behalf and affecting the king’s voice and authority. Interpreted in these terms then, it becomes apparent that since James responds in his own behalf his answer cannot sustain princely decorum and execute an efficacious riposte simultaneously.
It is perhaps also the libeller’s facelessness that caused James not to find the right tone since he appears to find this particularly problematic. He attempts to circumvent the matter of identity by rebutting the libel with a satire, and admonishes his subjects in general as “Purblind people” rather than addressing the individual libeller (l.3). The commons are reprimanded as a potentially unruly mob whose criticism of James is liable to threaten the stability of the body politic if they fail to accept their allotted place in it:
Looke on the ground whereon you goe
higher aspects will bringe your woe
Take heed your places all be true
& doe not discontents renue. (ll.92-5, Craigie’s italics)
James also sidesteps the matter of being unable to bring the offender to account by attributing his inaction to magnanimity, and offers his subjects the opportunity to reform:
If once I bend my angry browe
your ruine comes though not as now.
For slowe I am reuenge to take
and your amendment wrath will slake
Then hold your pratlinge, spare your penne
be honest and obedient men. (ll.165-70)
The slippage between the singular “penne” used by the individual libeller and the plurality of “men” that James addresses perhaps reflects his inability to remove his attention fully from the individual perpetrator.
96
It might be argued that this mitigates the effectiveness of his satirical
96 The slippage is consistent with other manuscript variations (see Craigie ed. (1958), II. p.264).
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