Download Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Shakespeare, Macbeth
and Renaissance
Theatre
Mark Twain compared piecing together Shakespeare’s life to
reconstructing a dinosaur from a few bits of bone stuck together
with plaster. According to Twain, we know more about the
Stegosaurus than we do about Shakespeare.

Actually, Shakespeare’s life is unusually welldocumented for a normal man during this time
period, but the documentation takes the form of
drab entries in church registers and city archives
rather than more useful resources.

As with most 16th century births, Shakespeare’s
birthday is not recorded. The baptism, however,
is. Since it was customary to baptize infants 3
days after their birth. History has therefore
recorded his birthday as April 23, 1564.

His death was exactly 52 years later on April 23,
1616.

Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon,
Warwickshire, about 100 miles northwest of
London.

He came from a middle class family. His father
was an established Stratford glove maker and
leather dresser (although he later became high
bailiff to the area), and his mother Mary was a
stay-at-home wife.
Shakespeare’s home in
Stratford

There is no record that Shakespeare
attended school, but as the son of a
prominent businessman, he would have
been entitled to free tuition at the local
grammar school.

Since Shakespeare did not attend
college, he would not have been regarded
as a man of learning in the same league
as fellow writers Ben Johnson and John
Milton.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married
Anne Hathaway of Shottery (near
Stratford). She was 26. As a minor,
Shakespeare required his father’s
permission to marry.

There is no documentary record of
Shakespeare’s activities between the birth
of his twins and 1592. In 1592,
Shakespeare is called an “upstart crow” by
Robert Greene, a jealous writer.

This quote is important because it verified
several facts about Shakespeare’s career
as it developed by 1592:
– He had become famous enough to rankle
Greene’s jealousy.
– He had become part of the professional
theatre world in London.
– He was known as a man with various abilities
(actor, playwright, and play reviser).
– He was recognized as a skilled poet.

The years 1594 – 1599 were momentous for
Shakespeare. In addition to creating a steady
stream of plays, he continued as a principal
actor and manager of an acting company called
the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. As a result, he
prospered financially and later became a part
owner in the most prestigious public theatre, the
Globe.
In 1596,
Shakespeare’s
family was granted
a coat of arms, an
Elizabethan status
symbol. The motto
was “Non Sans
Droit” – not without
right. The crest is a
falcon shaking a
spear.

In 1603, Queen Elizabeth dies and James
VI of Scotland becomes James I of
England.

Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 and
was buried at Holy Trinity Church. His
epitaph reads –
“GOOD FRIEND FOR JESUS SAKE
FORBEARE,
TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOSAED HEARE.
BLESTE BE YE MAN YT SPARES THESE
STONES,
AND CURST BE HE TY MOVES MY BONES. “

Shakespeare had good reason to include
this inscription over his grave. During the
Renaissance, when a burial ground
became overcrowded, it was common
practice for gravediggers to empty old
graves and dump the remains to make
way for new corpses.

No one knows how Shakespeare died; the
nature of his illness is unknown.
Did Shakespeare write his own
plays and poems?

The most obvious evidence that
Shakespeare wrote the works attributed to
him is that everyone at the time said he
did. He was often praised in writing as a
poet and playwright. Further, he was
named as the author of many of the works
while he was alive. Finally, seven years
after his death, the First Folio explicitly
attributed the rest of the works to him.
Who else could have been the
author?

Oxfordians claim that the man from Stratford
was “William Shakesper (or “Shakespere”), a
man whose name was spelled and pronounced
differently from that of the great poet “William
Shakespeare.”

Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and
Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford have also
been given credit for various reasons and
evidence.
Sir Francis Bacon
Christopher Marlowe
Edward de Vere
Shakespeare’s source for
Macbeth
The primary
source for
Macbeth was
Raphael
Holinshed's
Chronicles of
England, Scotland
and Ireland, first
published in 1577.
Map of Macbeth’s Scotland
Map of Macbeth’s Scotland
The REAL Macbeth
Lineage
 Macbeth was the king's given name, rather
than a 'son of' family name.
– It derives from the Gaelic mac beatha
meaning 'son of life'.
– His lineage can be traced back through three
and a half centuries to the Cenel Loairn (clan
of Loarn) of Dalraida.



Contrary to Shakespeare's depiction, there
was no suggestion that Macbeth was a
usurper or a murderer until three hundred
years after his death.
The first history to disparage his succession
is John Fordun's Chronicle written in the
fourteenth century.
In fact, Macbeth's claim on the throne was at
least as valid as Duncan's. The charge of
murder is first leveled in Andrew of
Wyntoun's Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland,
also dating from the fourteenth century.
The REAL Lady Macbeth

When Shakespeare wrote his play, he was
dependent upon the only sources available to
him - Raphael Holinshed's Chronicle of Scotland
(1580s) and John Bellenden's translation of
Hector Boerce's History and Chronicles of
Scotland (1536). Unfortunately, this work is now
regarded as largely fiction.
 It was Boerce who invented the character of
'Lady Macbeth', refined by Shakespeare into his
'fiend-like queen'.

Macbeth's historical wife was Gruoch, who was
either a niece of Malcolm II or a granddaughter
of Kenneth III.
 Gruoch was born of a royal line at odds with
Malcolm and presumably the house of Dunkeld,
where he had designated his succession.
 She also had reason for hostility towards
Macbeth, since she had earlier been the wife of
Gillacomgain, burned to death by Macbeth or his
followers.
 The marriage took place before Macbeth's
succession and was most likely a political union,
designed to bring peace between the contending
kindreds of Moray.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Shakespeare wrote the play Macbeth in
1606 - three years after the union of the
Crowns of Scotland and England under
James VI and I, of the Scottish Stuart
family.
 Shakespeare put a contemporary 'spin' on
Holinshed's version in the Chronicles
(published in 1578), making Macbeth the
villain in order to flatter the new king.

The 3 Witches

In addition, King James was obsessed
with the occult in general and witches in
particular, and it has been suggested that
he insisted on the presence of witches in
the play.

The “Weird Sisters” (Shakespeare meant
“wyrd” – fate and destiny.
Duncan

Duncan was not the wise and gentle old
man depicted by the Bard. He held his
throne for only six years, getting involved
in the treacherous Anglo-Norse politics of
Northumbria and hence presiding over
various unsuccessful campaigns in
England.
Map of Macbeth’s castle
The Curse of Macbeth

The "Curse of Macbeth" is the misfortune
that happens during the production of the
play.

The theory goes that Shakespeare
included actual black magic spells in the
incantations of the weird sisters. Those
who appear in the play or those who
mention the play's name within the
confines of a theatre risk having these
evils brought down on their heads.

The tragedy of Macbeth is considered so unlucky
that it is hardly ever called by name inside the
profession.

People refer to the play as "that play”, “the
unmentionable" or "the Scottish play."

It is supposed to be bad luck to quote from the
play or to use any sets, costumes, or props from a
production.

The play partly acquired its evil reputation
because of the weird sisters and partly because
tradition traces a long line of disasters back to its
premier on August 7, 1606.
Macbeth’s past

The boy actor playing Lady Macbeth died back stage on opening
night.

In 1934, four actors played Macbeth in a single week.

In one production of Macbeth, nothing went wrong until the fight
scene between Macbeth and Macduff.
– Both actors had round "Celtic-style" shields strapped to their
forearms of their left arms. The fight was very physical.
– The actor playing Macbeth made a violent move with his left arm
and the shield left his arm and flew like a Frisbee for twenty feet
across the stage.
– The actor playing Macduff ducked instinctively and the shield hit
the ground about sixteen inches from the front of the stage.
Sitting in the front row, directly opposite the shield sat two nuns.

The superstition is not so much about
doing the play as about naming it.

You are not supposed to mention the title
in a theatre.

The most interesting theory is that the play
contains the devil in the form of the porter.
(does this work if he says he answers the
door in the name of Beelzebub?)
The Remedy for the Curse

The most common remedy to get rid of the
curse is that the offender must step
outside, turn around three times, spit, and
say the foulest word he/she can think of,
and wait for permission to re-enter the
theatre.
Theatre in England
Drama in England started as plays being
performed for the church on religious
subjects (i.e. Resurrection of Christ)
 Subject matter in theatre expanded to
also include morality stories (more
character-based instead of biblical)
 With the Renaissance, came a new
interest in creating a venue for theatre
(playhouses).

Playhouses in London
To avoid the authorities, several
playhouses moved across the Thames to
neighborhoods not controlled by London
laws. (i.e. Southwark)
 The subject matter of some plays was
sometimes seen as inappropriate. Moving
the theatres gave more liberty to the
playwrights.

Shakespeare’s Globe
an open-air public theatre constructed
from remnants of the Theatre, which had
recently been demolished.
 3 main parts:

 The building proper (seating located here)
 The stage
 The Tiring house (backstage area)
“The Building Proper”
The building could hold approx. 3000
spectators.
 For one penny, a person could stand in
the “yard” to watch the performance.
 For a little more, patrons could go up into
the galleries of the theatre for a better
view.
 The most expensive seats were chairs set
right on the stage along its two sides.
 The seats
were
set up
“stadiumstyle, and they
became larger
the farther back
you went.
 During a performance on Henry VIII, a cannon fired to announce the
king’s entrance caught the thatch roof on fire. The theatre did not
reopen for a year. Luckily no one was seriously injured…fortunate
since there were only 2 exits. (One story does say that one man was
injured because he used ale to put out his burning britches.
The Stage

jutted halfway out into the yard, so the actors
were in much closer contact with the audience
 There was a trapdoor in the ceiling and floor of
the stage to allow for objects to be lowered on or
off stage.
 The area below the stage was known as “Hell.”
 The ceiling was painted with sun, moons, and
stars to represent the “Heavens.”
Tiring House


contained machinery and dressing rooms
A connected gallery above allowed for
musicians and even spectators.
Elizabethan Advertising
Above the hut (above the tiring house)
was a small tower with a flag pole. Flags
were erected on the day of the
performance which sometimes displayed a
picture advertising the next play to be
performed.
 Color coding was also used:
- a black flag meant a tragedy , white a
comedy and red a history.

Props

If a character carried a lantern, it was
meant to represent night (plays had to be
performed during the day for lighting)

For a forest setting, a few bushes and
small trees might be put on stage.
Indoor Theatres

Blackfriars, owned by Shakespeare’s
company, was one of several indoor
theatres in London.

The benefit to an indoor theatre was that
actors could perform regardless of the
hour or weather.
PLAGUE!

There were constant outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague
and every time this occurred the Theatres were shut
down. The closures occurred in 1593 , 1603 and 1608

In 1563, in London alone, over 20,000 people died of the
disease - In 1665 the Great Plague of London again
decimated the population of the town which killed 16% of
the inhabitants (17,500 out of the population of 93,000)

From December 1592 until December 1593 Stow (the
Elizabethan archivist) reported 10,675 plague deaths in
London, a city of approximately 200,000 people
THE SPREAD OF THE BUBONIC
PLAGUE
The City of London was filthy during
Shakespeare's era
 There was no sewage system. The waste
was just dumped into the River Thames
 The disease was transmitted by the fleas
that lived on rodents and animals,
especially rats
 The Bubonic plague (Black Death) was
always caught or spread from an infected
animal or person

THE SYMPTOMS OF THE BUBONIC
PLAGUE

The symptoms are:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–

Painful swellings in the armpits, legs, neck, or groin
Very high fever
Delirium and mental disorientation
Vomiting
Muscular pains
Bleeding in the lungs
An intense desire to sleep, which, if yielded to, quickly
proved fatal
The victims would often die within two to four
days.
“Ring Around the Rosy”

The children’s nursery song originated s the
plague song.
– Ring around the rosy (painful puss-filled sores)
A pocketful of posies (people carried flowers to block
out the stench of unburied corpses)
"Ashes, Ashes“ (remains were often cremated)
We all fall down!
Ring-a-Ring o'Rosies
A Pocket full of Posies
"A-tishoo! A-tishoo!“ (sneezing)
We all fall Down! (people dying)