Who were the traitors in shakespeares plays?

Answer 1

Son: What is a traitor?

Lady Macduff: Why, one that swears and lies.

Son: And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?

Lady Macduff: Every one.

Son: Who must hang them?

Lady Macduff: Why, the honest men.

Son: The the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men and hang up them. (Macbeth, 4,2)

Out of the mouths of babes . . . Indeed, in Shakespeare the traitors, that is those that launch attacks against their own state or its rulers, seem to outnumber the honest men. Indeed, in the whole Henry VI trilogy it is so unclear who the rulers are that everyone is a traitor. Often Shakespeare is on the side of the traitors, so that it is hard to remember that people like Macbeth, Richard III and Albany and Cornwall in King Lear are the legitimate authority and that Malcolm, Macduff (Lady Macduff was right about him), Buckingham, Richmond, and Cordelia are the traitors.

Here are some more of them: Bolingbroke was a traitor to Richard II, Aumerle to Henry IV, Hotspur to Henry IV, Scroop, Cambridge and Grey to Henry V, Jack Cade and his crew to Henry VI, York to Henry VI, Warwick to Henry VI, Warwick to Edward IV, Clarence to Edward IV, Gloucester to Edward V, Richmond to Richard III, Imogen to Cymbeline, Brutus and Cassius to Rome, Coriolanus to Rome, Lucius Andronicus to Rome, Claudius to Hamlet Sr., Hamlet to Claudius.

Answer 2

Son: What is a traitor?

Lady Macduff: Why, one that swears and lies.

Son: And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?

Lady Macduff: Every one.

Son: Who must hang them?

Lady Macduff: Why, the honest men.

Son: The the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men and hang up them. (Macbeth, 4,2)

Out of the mouths of babes . . . Indeed, in Shakespeare the traitors, that is those that launch attacks against their own state or its rulers, seem to outnumber the honest men. Indeed, in the whole Henry VI trilogy it is so unclear who the rulers are that everyone is a traitor. Often Shakespeare is on the side of the traitors, so that it is hard to remember that people like Macbeth, Richard III and Albany and Cornwall in King Lear are the legitimate authority and that Malcolm, Macduff (Lady Macduff was right about him), Buckingham, Richmond, and Cordelia are the traitors.

Here are some more of them: Bolingbroke was a traitor to Richard II, Aumerle to Henry IV, Hotspur to Henry IV, Scroop, Cambridge and Grey to Henry V, Jack Cade and his crew to Henry VI, York to Henry VI, Warwick to Henry VI, Warwick to Edward IV, Clarence to Edward IV, Gloucester to Edward V, Richmond to Richard III, Imogen to Cymbeline, Brutus and Cassius to Rome, Coriolanus to Rome, Lucius Andronicus to Rome, Claudius to Hamlet Sr., Hamlet to Claudius.