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tanistry

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tan·ist  (tnst, thônst)
n.
The heir apparent to an ancient Celtic chief, elected during the chief's lifetime.

[Irish Gaelic tánaiste, second, tanist, from Old Irish tánaise; see sed- in Indo-European roots.]

tanist·ry n.

tanistry
an early Irish rule of succession in which the successor to a Celtic chief was chosen from among eligible males during the chief’s lifetime. — tanist, n.
See also: Government


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The collection opens with commentary on good and bad interpreters of texts, Plautus's Trinummus, images of patriarchal power from Ariosto to Tasso, property and inheritance in the Renaissance novella, ideologies in Davies's report on the case of Tanistry, As You Like It and Macbeth in their comments on patrimony, Ben Jonson's dramas, Middletons' Chaste Maid, de La Perriere's intellectual path, Montaigne's sentimental bonds and Pound's bounds of dominium.
When Duncan spurns tanistry by naming Malcolm as his successor, he gives Macbeth the missing motive for regicide.
In the Irish mode of tanistry, where chieftains are born and made, and fantasy often turns to reality, there is still the dream of a Kennedy succession--of a man or woman the likes of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend or her brother Joe Kennedy or Patrick Kennedy or another of the kin stepping up to size up Excalibur and challenge the nation to keep the faith, to resurrect the vision of yet another Golden Age.
 
 
 
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