Cultural depictions of Mary, Queen of Scots

Cultural depictions of Mary, Queen of Scots
One of The London Dungeon's exhibitions is about Mary, Queen of Scots.

Mary, Queen of Scots, has inspired artistic and cultural works for over four centuries. The following lists cover various media, enduring works of high art, and recent representations in popular culture, film and fiction. The entries represent portrayals that a reader has a reasonable chance of encountering rather than a complete catalogue.

Contents

Fiction

  • In children's literature, novels on Mary, Queen of Scots include: Queen's Own Fool: A Novel of Mary Queen of Scots by Jane Yolen, The Lady of Fire and Tears by Terry Deary, and from the Royal Diaries, Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country, France, 1553 by Kathryn Lasky. A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley is about a young girl who finds herself in the time of and in the company of Anthony Babington, who is attempting to free Mary and overthrow Elizabeth.
  • In The Princeling, Volume 3 of The Morland Dynasty, a series of historical novels by author Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, the fictional Lettice Morland becomes embroiled in the dramatic events taking place at the court of Mary Queen of Scots.

Theatre

  • Maria Stuart (Mary Stuart) is an influential play by Friedrich Schiller, (most recently produced in London's West End in 2005, starring Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter).
  • The film Mary of Scotland is based on the hit Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson.
  • Sarah Miles portrayed Mary Queen of Scots on Broadway and the West End in the play Vivat! Vivat Regina! (1971) written by her husband Robert Bolt
  • Martha Graham choreographed and directed the modern dance titled "Episodes" (1985) that premiered at Lincoln Centre, New York, the dance featured Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I resolving their dynastic issues over a game of tennis.
  • The Scottish playwright Liz Lochhead explored the relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart in her play Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off.
  • Mary's imprisonment and trial are the subject of the play (in verse) The Lifeblood by poet Glyn Maxwell.
  • Maria Stuart - Königin der Schotten (Waldau Theater Bremen)

Poetry

  • Shortly after Mary Stuart's execution in 1587, the English Jesuit poet Robert Southwell composed an emblem poem portraying Mary as a Catholic martyr, "Decease, Release (Dum morior orior)."[1] The poem was never published in the early modern period; even owning a manuscript version of the poem was "inevitable flirtation with treason" in Elizabethan England.[1]
  • The 1596 edition of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene includes an allegorical representation of the trial of Mary Stuart (Book 5, Canto ix, stanzas 36-50). Mary Stuart is represented by Duessa and Elizabeth is figured by Mercilla. The allegory dwells on Elizabeth's reluctance to condemn Mary. Elizabeth's delay of three months before agreeing to have Mary executed is represented by a gap of three stanzas at the end of Canto ix.[2] Mercilla's judgment and Duessa's execution do not actually occur until the beginning of the next Canto (x.1-4).
  • The Spanish poet Lope de Vega wrote an epic poem upon Mary Stuart's life and death: Corona trágica (Tragic crown), published in 1628.
  • In Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky's 20 sonnets to Mary Stuart (in Russian) the poet addresses her as an interlocutor.

Music

Film

A 1895 reproduction of the historic scene, produced by Edison Manufacturing Co.
  • The first film depiction of Mary is the 1895 film The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, which depicts her beheading. It is one the first films to utilize an intentional jump cut to create the illusion of a single shot beheading. The effect was so convincing at the time that many viewers believed that the actress was actually killed.
  • The two classic film biographies of Mary are the 1936 Mary of Scotland starring Katharine Hepburn as Mary, Florence Eldridge as Elizabeth I and Fredric March as Bothwell, and the 1971 Mary, Queen of Scots starring Vanessa Redgrave as Mary, Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth and Nigel Davenport as Bothwell. One of the most significant inaccuracies in the Redgrave film is the inclusion of scenes in which Mary and her cousin Elizabeth I meet in person. In the 1936 film, Mary and Elizabeth also meet; Elizabeth visits her in prison the night before Mary's execution. (This ahistorical meeting between the two queens had previously been added for dramatic effect in Schiller's Maria Stuart). The screenplay of the 1936 film was written by Dudley Nichols, based on the stage play Mary of Scotland, by Maxwell Anderson, which was a Broadway success in 1933. The 1971 film was written by John Hale, who also wrote a novelization of the film's screenplay.
  • Zarah Leander, the famous Swedish-German actress from the Nazi period, plays Mary in the 1940 film Das Herz der Konigin ("The Heart of the Queen"), an UFA production directed by Carl Froelich and making use of the historical story for anti-British propaganda in the contex of the then ongoing World War II.
  • Samantha Morton plays Mary in the 2007 film Elizabeth: The Golden Age, starring Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth.
  • The 1980 motion picture The Mirror Crack'd, a Miss Marple mystery, is centered around the making of a motion picture about Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots (this being an example of metafiction, or a film within a film). In this case, the actress playing the actress playing Mary is Elizabeth Taylor.
  • In what could be considered among the most historically accurate portrayals, Vivian Pickles played Mary of Scots in the landmark 1971 television Emmy Award-winning BBC series Elizabeth R. Queen Elizabeth was played by Glenda Jackson in this series.

Television

  • Gunpowder, Treason & Plot a 2004 Television Mini series by the BBC dramatized the reigns of Scottish monarchs Mary, Queen of Scots and her son King James VI of Scotland who became King James I of England and foiled the Gunpowder Plot. Mary was played by French actress Clémence Poésy.
  • In the BBC TV production Elizabeth R, Mary was played by Vivian Pickles. This is considered by some to be the most historically accurate portrayal of Mary during her captivity in England.
  • In the Channel 4 miniseries, Elizabeth I, the first two-hour segment partly centers around the conflict between Mary and Elizabeth. Mary is portrayed by actress Barbara Flynn, and her execution is graphically shown, in a manner that is reportedly true to history.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus episode 22 featured a skit involving a "BBC radio drama series" titled "Death of Mary, Queen of Scots".
  • A 1957 episode of the Wonderful World of Disney titled, "The Truth About Mother Goose", discussed the origins of three nursery rhymes. Series host Walt Disney attributed the Mary Mary Quite Contrary rhyme to the life of Mary Stuart. This episode featured a brief animated short about Mary's life, done in the artistic style of "Sleeping Beauty". The short touched on important moments in Mary's life, even ending with a scene of Mary being marched to her beheading.
  • An episode of the British series Lovejoy ("The Colour of Mary", series 4) finds the main character seeking information and the whereabouts of Mary's pool table.
  • The Curator of Tutbury Castle, Lesley Smith portrayed Mary Queen of Scots for Living's "Most Haunted" in 2002 for a dramatic Monlauge of her time imprisoned there. Smith continues these re-enactments in the castle.

Other

Historical biography and analysis

Popular fiction and drama

  • Mary, Queen of Scots by Sally Stepanek (young adult fiction)
  • Wallenstein and Mary Stuart by Friedrich Schiller
  • Mary of Scotland, a play by Maxwell Anderson
  • Full Story Inside, a modern novel by Steve Horsfall
  • The Queen's Own Fool by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris
  • Immortal Queen by Elizabeth Byrd
  • Shadow Queen, a supernatural novel by Tony Gibbs
  • The Marchman; Warden of the Queen's March; The Queen's Grace by Nigel Tranter
  • Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George
  • Court of Shadows by Cynthia Morgan, a suspense novel
  • Fatal Majesty by Reay Tannahill
  • Mary, Queen of Scots: A Queen without a country by Kathryn Lasky
  • Many plays and films on Elizabeth I (eg Elizabeth I) also feature Mary
  • The Other Queen" - a Philippa Gregory 2008 novel
  • "The Royal Road to Fotheringay" - a Jean Plaidy novel
  • The Queen's Own Fool by Jane Yolen and Robert Harris
  • The Memoirs of Mary, Queen of Scots by Carolly Erickson

See also

References

  1. ^ St. Robert Southwell: Collected Poems. Ed. Peter Davidson and Anne Sweeney. Carcanet Press: Manchester U.K., 2007
  2. ^ The Faerie Queene. Ed. A.C. Hamilton. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2001, p. 577 n.

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