Download How to read Macbeth

How to Read Shakespeare! (Macbeth edition) 1) METER AND RHYME
Macbeth, like all of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, is primarily written in blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Language was Shakespeare’s sole special effect, and blank verse elevates the tone of the dialogue. As
Shakespeare’s plays rarely have stage directions, look for these implied cues.
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Shared lines of blank verse—in which one character speaks part of a line of iambic pentameter and the
other character finishes it—was Shakespeare’s way of telling the second actor to deliver his/her line
quickly, without breaking the rhythm of the line. This speeds up the exchange of dialogue.
Unfinished lines of iambic pentameter followed by another character’s full line of iambic pentameter
was Shakespeare’s way of creating a pause, slowing down the exchange between the characters.
Blocking (stage action) was usually implied through the dialogue itself. Sometimes a character’s line
might be confusing because you are reading like a student studying literature—not like an actor
studying a script embedded with cues for what he or she should be doing while enacting the line. If you
are confused by a line, try reading it like an actor.
Sometimes, characters will speak in prose—language in its ordinary form, without meter. When they do, ask
yourself what effect Shakespeare was trying to create. Was he trying to make this dialogue low and comic?
Was he trying to make the character sound more open, honest, less formal than the lines would sound in blank
verse?
Rhyme: Rhyming couplets at the end of a scene give the scene a sense of closure, and Shakespeare’s audiences
would have known that a rhyming couplet signified the end of a scene. Also, in this play the supernatural
elements (the witches and Hecate) usually speak in rhyming couplets, and their lines are in trochaic tetrameter—
with catalexis, the omission of part of the foot of troche—rather than blank verse. Thus, the witches’ lines begin
with a stressed syllable, end with a stressed syllable, and rhyme, giving their lines an incantatory (chant-like)
quality.
2) SENTENCE STRUCTURE
Break down confusing passages into their component sentences by noticing where the parts of a sentence are
placed. Sometimes a character’s line is simple; sometimes it illustrates anastrophe; sometimes a line is short;
sometimes it is very long. Always ask yourself what Shakespeare is trying to emphasize or the effect he is trying
to create with his sentence structure. Sometimes he puts the object of the sentence at the beginning to emphasize
it. Sometimes he creates tension by drawing out a sentence, saving the important information for last.
To get a sense of what a character is saying, consider reading each clause separately. Look for nouns and
adjectives reversed; look for verbs in strange positions, especially at the END of a sentence; watch out for
prepositional phrases. Sometimes the subject and predicate are at the END of the sentence. Then put them
together to get the whole thought.
King Duncan: What bloody man is that? He can report,
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
The newest state. (1.2.1-3)
"Translation": Who is that man all covered with blood? He can tell us about the latest state of the
battle, since he's so battered and beaten up.
King Duncan: Dismayed this not our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
Captain: Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. (1.2.37-39)
“Translation": Didn't this dismay [frighten; daunt] our generals, Macbeth and Banquo?
Sure, just as sparrows dismay eagles, or a rabbit dismays a lion.
Note the anastrophe in Duncan’s line. Note, too, how the Captain’s line expresses Macbeth’s and Banquo’s
response with a simile. Shakespeare uses MANY similes and metaphors—and every other type of figurative
language—throughout his plays. Note, too, how the Captain uses verbal irony in his response, humorously
implying that it would be just as ridiculous for Macbeth and Banquo to be frightened by the Norwegian king’s
fresh supply of weapons and soldiers as it would be for a eagle or lion to be frightened by its own prey.
Captain: If I say sooth, I must report they were
As cannons overcharged with double cracks,
So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe. (1.2.40-42)
“Translation”: To speak the truth, I must say that they were like two cannons stuffed with two
cannonballs; that is, the two of them made quadruple attacks on our enemies.
Notice in the example above how the simile is explained in the following line of verse. Shakespeare’s audiences
were from all walks of life, and sometimes he follows a lofty, poetic image with clearer way of stating the same
image. This way, Shakespeare could give educated audience members the lofty, poetic language they expected
from an afternoon at the theatre while still allowing the less educated “groundlings” to understand what was said.
Macbeth: Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red. (2.2.78-81)
In this example, notice how Shakespeare elevates the drama of the moment by having Macbeth invoke a pagan
Roman deity even though the audience was Protestant Christian. Latin was the language of classical Roman
literature, so the reference to this god wasn’t so much theological as literary. Shakespeare also has Macbeth use
high-register words with Latin roots: multitudinous and incarnadine. Yet no “translation” of this elevated
language is necessary because Shakespeare provides a “translation” in the next line.
3) VOCABULARY
Shakespeare uses all kinds of strange-sounding words—some are simply old words no longer in use, some are
archaic terms no longer conveying the same meaning they once did, and some are words The Bard of Avon
himself created because the idea he wished to express didn't exist in English.
A) Words Shakespeare himself coined for Macbeth
Macbeth: If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly. If the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence and catch
With his surcease success… (1.7.1-4)
Though the term “assassin” had been in use prior to the Scottish play, Shakespeare coins a verb by adding a
verb ending to the noun.
Shakespeare did the same thing with multitudinous in the previous section. Although the word multitude,
which derives from Latin, was in common use in Shakespeare’s day, Shakespeare coined an adjective form
by adding an adjective ending to it.
B) Names
Shakespeare often uses epithets for his characters. In this play, Macbeth is also called Glamis and
Cawdor—titles referring to the realms he rules, just as the kings of Norway and England are called
"Norway" and "England.” Ross, one of the Scottish thanes, refers to Macbeth as Belladona’s bridegroom, a
an allusion to Mars, the Roman god of war, thus calling Macbeth a great warrior while also elevating his
status by referring to one of the pagan gods of classical antiquity.
Note that throughout the play, kings refer to themselves as "we." This is the "royal plural" all kings used.
Note that James I was the first English monarch to promote the Divine Right of Kings, the medieval belief
that God had bestowed earthly power on the king, just as God had bestowed spiritual power and authority to
the church. This belief justified the king's absolute authority in both political and spiritual matters. Thus, a
king’s use of “we” referred to not just the monarch himself but God! This belief, then, would have added a
sense of urgency and spiritual significance to questions of whether a monarch was fit to rule for
Shakespeare’s audience, a tension lost on modern American audiences.