Homework for Thurs.•continue to work on research project, new deadline, May 5•Read group performance assignment

Introduce QuotesArnold Stein analyzes this descent in his paper, “Macbeth and Word-Magic,” which focuses primarily on the transformation in Macbeth’s rhetoric throughout the play. Stein writes, “We can measure something in the development of Macbeth if, with the soliloquy in which he movingly dissuades himself – or seems to – from killing Duncan, we compare the parallel soliloquy in which he persuades himself to have Banquo killed” (Stein 275).

Engage with SourcesLiterary critic Wayne C. Booth examines this manipulation of wife over husband in his essay titled, “Macbeth as Tragic Hero.” He writes the following: “There is never any doubt, first, that he is bludgeoned into the deed by Lady Macbeth’s superior rhetoric and force of character and by the pressure of unfamiliar circumstances (including the witches) and, second, that even in the final decision to go through with it he is extremely troubled by a guilty conscience” (Booth 20). However, in spite of this guilty conscience and reluctance to kill, Macbeth still actively makes the decision to stab Duncan in his sleep. At all times he is completely capable of disregarding the witches’ prophecy and ignoring his wife’s taunts, yet the ideas that these forceful women implant in his mind incite his already present ambition, and cause him to take action by exercising his capacity for free will 

Engage with SourcesSome literary critics argue that Macbeth is a weak-willed

character who passively lets others (i.e. his wife, the witches) goad him into doing things that he would not normally do. This notion is exemplified in O. W. Firkins’ critical essay, “The Character of Macbeth,” in which Firkins writes, “Macbeth almost never shows the instincts or capacities of leadership. He is pushed into the murder of Duncan by a combination of fate, chance, and woman” (Firkins 423). Firkins also cites other instances where Macbeth’s capacity for action falls short, such as when he allows Malcolm and Donalbain to flee Scotland, and when he spontaneously decides to add another assassin to kill Banquo and Fleance without alerting the other killers first. Moreover, Firkins accuses Macbeth of consistently employing the guidance of others in order to determine what his next move should be; he initially chooses to follow the witches’ prophecy and his wife’s urgings, and when that direction runs dry, he makes another visit to the witches with the hopes of learning what step to take next. Yet while Firkins does raise some valid points and provides substantial textual evidence to support his line of reasoning, his argument ultimately comes up short and fails to adequately portray Macbeth’s actions throughout the play.

To start with, Macbeth is most certainly not weak-willed. From our very first impression of him as he tears apart Macdonwald on the battlefield, to the very last action he takes by willingly going to fight at Birnam Wood even though he knows it will result in the end of his life, Macbeth is nothing if not assertive...”

Engage with SourcesOn a dramatic level, West speculates that Shakespeare constructed his plays’ otherworldly forces into malleable characters the audience could shape for two reasons: (1) he devoted more of his time and effort to dramatic purposes, and (2) he wanted to impart a sense of realism onto the occult. Making the Ghost ambiguous allowed Shakespeare to focus on the story rather than quibble with plot devices (such as Hamlet’s pirate friends) and create a spiteful yet sympathetic character, the tale’s ideal ghost (1113). On the other hand, the Bard needed to remind his audience that any one of them could be visited by such a spirit at any moment and that, under the circumstances Hamlet was placed in, a person couldn’t be entirely sure where the phantom came from (1115). To those two suggestions, I would like to add one of my own: leaving certain riddles to be interpreted by the audience creates interest in the play.

Hook Readers in Intro.The year is 1606, the city is bustling London and the recently crowned King James I of England is not as secure in his position as he would like to be; his first year as reigning monarch of both Scotland and England has seen two plots on his life and another one could be right around the corner.

Love MagicThou, thou Lysander, thou hast giuen her rimes,And interchang'd loue-tokens with my childe:Thou hast by Moone-light at her window sung,With faining voice, verses of faining loue,And stolne the impression of her fantasie,With bracelets of thy haire, rings, gawdes, conceits,Knackes, trifles, Nose-gaies, sweet meats (messengersOf strong preuailment in vnhardned youth)With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughters heart,Turn'd her obedience (which is due to me)To stubborne harshnesse. (1.1.36-46)

Love MagicLys. Or if there were a simpathie in choise,Warre, death, or sicknesse, did lay siege to it;Making it momentarie, as a sound:Swift as a shadow, short as any dreame,Briefe as the lightning in the collied night,That (in a spleene) vnfolds both heauen and earth;And ere a man hath power to say, behold,The iawes of darkness do deuoure it vp:So quicke bright things come to confusion. (1.1.151-9)

Stage MagicBot. That will aske some teares in the true performing of it: if I do it, let the audience looke to their eies:I will mooue stormes; I will condole in some measure.To the rest yet, my chiefe humour is for a tyrant. I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to teare a Cat in, to make all split the raging Rocks; and shiuering shocks shall break the locks of prison gates, and Phibbus carre shall shine from farre, and make and marre the foolish Fates. This was lofty. (1.2.293-301)

Herb MagicOb: My gentle Pucke come hither; thou remembrestSince once I sat vpon a promontory,And heard a Meare-maide on a Dolphins backe,Vttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,That the rude sea grew ciuill at her song,And certaine starres shot madly from their Spheares,To heare the Sea-maids musicke…Ob. That very time I say (but thou couldst not)Flying betweene the cold Moone and the earth,Cupid all arm'd; a certaine aime he tookeAt a faire Vestall, throned by the West,And loos'd his loue-shaft smartly from his bow,As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts,But I might see young Cupids fiery

shaftQuencht in the chaste beames of the watry Moone;And the imperiall Votresse passed on,In maiden meditation, fancy free.Yet markt I where the bolt of Cupid fell.It fell vpon a little westerne flower;Before, milke-white; now purple with loues wound,And maidens call it, Loue in idlenesseFetch me that flower; the hearb I shew'd thee once,The iuyce of it, on sleeping eye-lids laid,Will make or man or woman madly doteVpon the next liue creature that it sees.Fetch me this hearbe, and be thou heere againe,Ere the Leuiathan can swim a league.

The English Physician, Nicholas Culpepper

Heart's-Ease (Love in Idleness)This is that herb which such physicians as are licensed to blaspheme by authority, without danger of having their tongues burned through with an hot iron, called an herb of the Trinity. It is also called by those that are more moderate, Three Faces in a Hood, Love in Idleness, Cull me to you; and in Sussex we call them Pancies.Place : Besides those which are brought up in gardens, they grow commonly wild in the fields, especially in such as are very barren: sometimes you may find it on the tops of the high hills.Government and virtues : The herb is really saturnine, something cold, viscous, and slimy. A strong decoction of the herbs and flowers (if you will, you may make it into syrup) is an excellent cure for the French pox, the herb being a gallant antivenereal: and that antivenereals are the best cure for that disease, far better and safer than to torment them with the flux, divers foreign physicians have confessed. The spirit of it is excellently good for the convulsions in children, as also for the falling sickness, and a gallant remedy for the inflammation of the lungs and breasts, pleurisy, scabs, itch, &c. It is under the celestial sign Cancer. (http://www.bibliomania.com/2/1/66/113/frameset.html)

Herb MagicOb I know a banke where the wilde time blowes,Where Oxslips and the nodding Violet growes,Quite ouer-cannoped with luscious woodbine,With sweet muske roses, and with Eglantine;There sleepes Tytania, sometime of the night,Lul'd in these flowers, with dances and delight:And there the snake throwes her enammel'd skinne,Weed wide enough to rap a

Fairy in.And with the iuyce of this Ile streake her eyes,And make her full of hatefull fantasies.Take thou some of it, and seek through this groue;A sweet Athenian Lady is in loueWith a disdainefull youth: annoint his eyes,But doe it when the next thing he espies,May be the Lady.

The English Physician, Nicholas Culpepper

Thyme It is in vain to describe an herb so commonly known.Government and virtues : It is a noble strengthener of the lungs, as notable a one as grows; neither is there scarce a better remedy growing for that disease in children which they commonly call the Chin- cough, than it is. It purges the body of phlegm, and is an excellent remedy for shortness of breath. It kills worms in the belly, and being a notable herb of Venus, provokes the terms, gives safe and speedy delivery to women in travail, and brings away the after birth. It is so harmless you need not fear the use of it. An ointment made of it takes away hot swellings and warts, helps the sciatica and dullness of sight, and takes away pains and hardness of the spleen. Tis excellent for those that are troubled with the gout.It eases pains in the loins and hips. The herb taken any way inwardly, comforts the stomach much, and expels wind.http://www.bibliomania.com/2/1/66/113/frameset.html

Violet

They are a fine pleasing plant of Venus, of a mild nature, no way harmful. All the Violets are cold and moist while they are fresh and green, and are used to cool any heat, or distemperature of the body, either inwardly or outwardly, as inflammations in the eyes, in the matrix or fundament, in imposthumes also, and hot swellings, to drink the decoction of the leaves and flowers made with water in wine, or to apply them poultice-wise to the grieved places: it likewise eases pains in the head, caused through want of sleep; or any other pains arising of heat, being applied in the same manner, or with oil of roses…only picked and dried and drank in water, is said to help the quinsy, and the falling-sickness in children, especially in the beginning of the disease. The flowers of the white Violets ripen and dissolve swellings. http://www.bibliomania.com/2/1/66/113/frameset.html

Oxslips, Muskroses, Eglantine

Woodbine, or Honey-Suckles

It is an herb of Mercury, and appropriated to the lungs; neither is it Crab claims dominion over it; neither is it a foe to the Lion; if the lungs be afflicted by Jupiter, this is your cure. It is fitting a conserve made of the flowers of it were kept in every gentlewoman's house; I know no better cure for an asthma than this: besides, it takes away the evil of the spleen, provokes urine, procures speedy delivery of women in travail, helps cramps, convulsions, and palsies, and whatsoever griefs come of cold or stopping; if you please to make use of it as an ointment, it will clear your skin of morphew, freckles, and sun-burnings, or whatsoever else discolours it, and then the maids will love it. http://www.bibliomania.com/2/1/66/113/frameset.html