impressive specimens of humanity, but Samuel rejected
them for the Kingship: "The Lord said unto
Samuel, Loke not on his countenance, nor on ye height of his stature, because I have refused him: for God
seeth not as man seeth: for man loketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord beholdeth the heart” (II
Samuel 16.7). But as soon as Samuel laid eyes on the boy he perceived the virtue of his heart and
sanctified him with a horn of oil to signify that he would become the next King of Israel.
David's rise and reign were beset with scandal, conspiracy, warfare, and political danger. Even before
becoming King, he safeguarded his political future by marrying Michal, daughter of mentally unstable
King Saul. Saul, however, is terribly jealous of David's popularity. His daughter, the people, and even his
own son Jonathan, on whom he wished to confer the throne, all treat David as the heir apparent. Several
times Saul attempts to have David murdered, but his plots --
as when his henchman arriving at the
bedchamber of David and Michal are fooled by decoys into thinking the two are asleep on the bed when
actually they have climbed down a rope ladder to escape (I Samuel XIX) --
inevitably fail. As distress
grows in the land, David gathers to himself a sizable outlaw force which is capable of posing a military
threat to Saul's supremacy. In a reversal of Saul's attempts to kill him, David thrice holds Saul in his
power and refuses to kill him because, so the story goes, David said that Saul "was the Lord's anointed" (I
Samuel 10.1, 16.13, 24.11, II Samuel -1.14) -- that is, the lawful king (no matter how bad) of Israel.
It is easy to see how this narrative could become the central legitimating myth for the European states
of Medieval and Renaissance Europe. David, warts and all, fulfilled all the most natural expectations of a
heroic tradition. He was the youngest son in a family of shepherds who rose to become a powerful
monarch. At every step in his ascent he behaved with the most impeccable respect towards his superiors,
including his arch-enemy and father-in-law, King Saul. He alone of the Israelites dared to go into single
combat with the great Goliath. He was "strong, valiant, & a man of warre & wise in matters, & a comely
persone” (I Samuel 16.18: G). Yet, after he came to power he was also one who could seduce Bathsheba
and send her husband to a premeditated death in the wars. A hero with a fatal flaw.
But there is one more fact of utmost importance which is necessary to bear in mind in order to
apprehend the Elizabethan view of David. Elizabethans sincerely believed that David was the author of
many of the 150 Hebrew Psalms. As a musical poet-king, sacred history's Orpheus, the most ancient of
the holy singers, the anxiety of his influence was immense. He could be compared only to Moses,
Socrates or Jesus. Hence it is not surprising that David, like Orpheus, exerts a continuous subliminal
presence in the Shakespeare text -- not manifest, but latent, singing "between the lines."
It is important not to forget that internal evidence of a persuasive nature could be cited in support of
the tradition of David as the author of the psalms. In the same chapter of I Samuel in which the prophet
anoints David as the future monarch of Israel, Saul the existing king, suffering from what seems to have
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