SUMMERS, KAREN CRADY, Ph.D. Reading Incest - The University ...

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A King, and No King is also a tale which “symbolically defends [the existing]
order against the combined threats of female sovereignty, misdirected inheritance, and
endogamous sexual union” (Boehrer 101-2). Through Arbaces’ desire for his sister there
is a “scenario for testing the logical corollary of absolutist theory which proposes that for
a ruler, desire is its own legitimating principle” (Boehrer). This is, of course, the very
definition of tyranny, and theatergoers know what happens to tyrants: they are destroyed,
as Antiochus was in Pericles. But a female sovereign—female power in general—is
likewise undesirable. The play does test various situations that England has found or
might find itself in, and concludes that the only viable way for the nation to prosper is to
return to the established norms of patriarchy and fixed social estates and gender roles.
In this play the issue of incest is explored in safety, undoubtedly a relief to
audiences struggling with the indeterminacy of the definition of incest still. In this
tragicomedy, a plot is set in motion that seems surely headed for death, destruction, and
darkness. Only at the last minute does the plot veer sharply to a comic, romantic, and
happy ending that serves to reassure its audience that the existing social system works for
all. The uncertainty of tragicomedy is like the uncertainty of an audience as it struggles
to find its way, and the lesson learned at the end is that the old way of patriarchy puts
things back in order. Incest is a direct affront to divine order which in turn meant a
challenge to society, for marriage is protected by social structures because it is,
microcosmically, a reflection of divine order 5 . Once the baby-switch is revealed, the
5 For a discussion of early modern statutes governing incest, see my Introduction.