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How many children had Lady Macbeth?

Drama and the Birth Rate

Knights phrased the question carefully in order to draw out its absurdity: “ How many children.” There’s nothing strange about wondering about the Macbeths’ children, or lack thereof, per se. In a later post, I’ll describe what happened when their competitive energies began to be harnessed by an educational-professional system: the beginnings of meritocracy, with its own strange—and surprisingly dangerous—dynamics. But among an imaginary aristocracy, a low birth rate provided the only possible opportunity for upward, rather than downward, mobility by creating openings at the top of the social pyramid.

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