Exploring Liz Lochhead's Mary Queen of Scots got her head chopped off: what it means to be a woman in power

considering the poetic and dramatic interrelation in Liz Lochhead’s works point out that the play is divided into two parts, resembling stanzaic poetic structure, it is like a poem structured in varied scenes and from many perspectives [Horvat 2011:181].

Though the play is based on the historical events and introduces some major historical figures of Scottish and English past and also the cultural and historical background of the 16th century it is not strictly speaking a historical play. It is clearly demonstrated by the frequent use of anachronisms such as John Knox’s bowler hat and umbrella (Act 1 Scene 4), Riccio’s old typewriter (Act 2, Scene 1), a letter with a Polaroid snapshot of a baby in Elizabeth’s hands (Act 2 Scene 6), Darnley’s surgical mask (Act 2 Scene 6). The introduction to the play sets a fairy-tale tone by the opening lines: ‘Once upon a time there were twa queens on the wan green island, and the wan green island was split intae twa kingdoms…’ (Act 1, Scene 1). This tone is later reinforced by James’s lullaby and ballads (Act 1 Scene 9, Act 2 Scene 6). The title of the play is a line from a children’s rhyme that will be chanted by children at the end of the play (Act 2 Scene 8). Lochhead also presents the narrator La Corbie, a crow, who helps the reader to move through the play by telling the whole story and commenting on the action, interacting with the characters. This fairy-tale tone overthrows any notions of formal authoritative history, distances the reader from the facts and historicity of the events and people. The play is like retelling of the familiar tale or a version of Mary Queen of Scots’ myth [McDonald 1993: 134] that goes back to the Scottish national collective memory. Iicle-t has been interpreted many times and has become part of popular culture. Thus, the play juxtaposes the meaningful cultural contexts of the past and present and reinvents the past in order to explore and discuss most burning present-day issues. Within the play different opposing forces center around Scotland and England, Scottish and English nobles, Catholic and Protestant Churches, international and domestic policies. These forces act and react and help to reevaluate and reconsider the ideas of tolerance and violence, public and private, power, manipulation, cruelty, control which clash in the play. Lochhead exploits the legacy of the historical issues to address some contemporary cultural and political problems.

The beginning of the play compares and contrasts Mary Queen of Scots to Elizabeth I of England. They are related and are ‘each the ither’s nearest kinswoman on earth’ (Act 1 Scene 2), they rule on the same island – ‘wan green island’ which is split into two kingdoms. Lochhead begins to introduce her characters and form the historical and cultural background of the play by presenting an extended commentary in the opening introduction (Act 1 Scene 1) and by mixing and blending various language forms, for example, La Corbie names herself in her opening speech using English – ‘The crow’, Scots – ‘the Corbie’ and French – ‘le corbeau, moi!’ (Act 1 Scene1). Nancy K. Gish writes that ‘Lochhead thus uses common, uncommon and foreign words to evoke a particular world embracing centuries of Scottish and English history, culture and attitudes’ [Gish 2013:54].

The diversity of languages, their variations and blended forms used by the main characters also help to reveal their identities. Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I are clearly defined in the stage directions through their voices and languages they use:

Mary, when she speaks, has a unique voice. She’s a Frenchwoman speaking totally fluently, Braid Scots vocabulary and all, in Scots, not English – but with a French accent. Elizabeth has a robust, and almost parodic version of slightly antique (think forties black-and-white films), very patrician RP.

Not only their nationality and some major conflicts of the time (political, religious, cultural) are defined in these characteristics but the epithet robust shows that Elizabeth is strong, assertive, full of determination and lacks weaknesses and these qualities are useful for her as a powerful politician in Lochhead’s play.

Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England are tied together in the same role of a woman vested with political power and they both prove that they are capable of ruling their nations, as they both do not want to be dominated by men which Mary asserts in her confrontation with John Knox (Act 1 Scene 4) and by her denial to grant Darnley the right to become king (Act 2 Scene1). They do not want to be mastered by men as Elizabeth does when she considers a possibility of marrying Lord Leicester (Act 1 Scene 5).

Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England seem to be dramaturgically balanced as they are not just political opponents. They are rivals as they are definitely not equal in youth and beauty. Elizabeth knows that and is jealous and her scornful laughter which is also addressed towards Mary’s Scottishness is full of contempt (Act 1 Scene 3). Moreover, Elizabeth talks about herself not only as a royal or politician but as a woman, she envies Mary’s marriage, motherhood, and happiness and expresses much disappointment about her own age:

(with a hand mirror. She looks in it.) A son and heir… and I am of but barren stock. ‘The Virgin Queen’ Too old to whelp now at any rate.

I do think it’s hard to think of her so happy and me not! Dark deeds, bloody murders, plots against her life and throne, and she wins out again and again. All those involved just scatter when Darnley deserts them, most of the original rebels are pardoned and back in Edinburgh, such is the wheel of fortune, and she is – if my spies tell me true – quite sweetly reconciled with the child-husband. All her people love her, she has a husband and a fine healthy son.

Such is the wheel of fortune! (Act 2 Scene 6).

The play examines the personal cost of power for both Mary and Elizabeth: ‘…when’s a queen a queen And when’s a queen juist a wummin?’ (Act 1, Scene 3). The answer is partially given through their attitude to marriage and love. For Elizabeth marriage is a political decision, she later vows not to marry whereas Mary marries for love and passion: ‘I will marry wha I can love’ (Act 1 Scene 4). Elizabeth, who remains the unmarried virgin queen, retains her crown. Mary demonstrates that a woman can be a queen, but if that queen acts like a woman (note her romantic affair with Bothwell in Act 2 Scene 6) and reveals her sensual nature, which may be her weakness, she will lose both her crown and her head.

And my so-called ‘wise advisers’ would have to trick me before I would consent to sign a warrant for her death.

Would have to trick me. Trick me. Trick me! (Act 2 Scene 7)

Elizabeth eventually triumphs over Mary who is her political victim. But the reader may still doubt whether Mary was executed due to some pure political reasons or that the cruel decision to behead her was made by the envious woman who has much power. The opposition of the female and male qualities and roles of the main characters helps Lochhead to introduce the issues of violence, dominance and power, explore difficult relations of England and Scotland and their political dynamic in the past and present [Rodríguez González 2004:106].

Mary and Elizabeth are paired up with each other and can be represented on the stage simultaneously (Act 1 Scene 2), but they never interact directly. Lochhead exploits a device of doubling of characters to introduce a multiplicity of views of them and their female roles. Mary Queen of Scots is Marion, Elizabeth’s gentlewoman, and also Mairn, the youthful whore who attracts John Knox, and little Maree in the last scene of the play entitled ‘Jock Tamson’s Bairns’, likewise Elizabeth I of England is Bessie, Mary’s maid, and also Leezie who is Mairn’s street companion, and Wee Betty, the bully, in the last scene. The characters undergo sudden transformations (note, for example, such transformations in Act 1 Scene 3, Act 1 Scene 6 or Act 1 Scene 7). The queens, their maids and common women are thematically connected and structurally intertwined so that they show difference and communion between women, underline their roles and diverse experiences that can affect their nature and decision making, can define their personal and political lives [McDonald 1993:134].

Though the basic plot of Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off is familiar from history, previous dramatizations of Mary Queen of Scots’ life and popular culture Liz Lochhead as an inventive and imaginative playwright creates an emotionally intense drama. In its complexity it introduces not only the historical and national dimension and but some human perspectives exploring the idea of the two women in power. Combining the familiar with unfamiliar and unusual, the general with personal Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off makes an everlasting impression on the reader.