"The jurists had claimed that the king's body politic is utterly void of "natural Defects and Imbecilities." Here, however, "Imbecility" seems to hold sway. And yet, the very bottom has not been reached. Each scene, progressively, designates a new low. "King body natural" in the first scene, and "Kingly Fool" in the second: with those two twin-born beings there is associated, in the half-sacramental abdication scene, the twin-born deity as an even lower estate. For the "Fool" marks the transition from "King" to "God," and nothing could be more miserable, it seems, than the God in the wretchedness of man."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Jews from GermanyHistorians from GermanyNon-fiction authors from GermanyMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyUniversity of California, Berkeley faculty
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernst_Kantorowicz
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Ernst Kantorowicz
Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz (May 3, 1895 – September 9, 1963) was a Jewish German historian of medieval political and intellectual history and art, known for his 1927 book Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite on Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and The King's Two Bodies (1957) on medieval and early modern ideologies of monarchy and the state. He was an elected member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
10 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Ernst Kantorowicz →
Related Quotes
"The fascination emanating as usual from the historical material itself prevailed over any desire of practical or mora…"
"The antithesis served the Anonymous, it is true, to observe very strictly the inherent difference between the God and…"
"That the phrase actually originated in the Hispana is obvious for a simple reason: only in that collection do we find…"
"It appears relevant to the general subject of this study, and also otherwise worth our while, to inspect more closely…"
"Over against his lost outward kingship he sets an inner kingship, makes his true kingship to retire to inner man, to …"
"The features as reflected by the looking-glass betray that he is stripped of every possibility of a second or super-b…"
"A hundred years or more of Christ-centered monastic piety have affected also the image of rulership. In fact, the uni…"
"In late antique art, we often find the halo bestowed on such figures as might impersonate a supra-individual idea or …"
"In other words, whenever we capitalize a notion and, in the English language, even change the gender from neuter to f…"
"Scientific education is catholic; it embraces the whole field of human learning. No student can master all knowledge …"