MacbethThe Thug Who Would Be
King
Holinshed’s Chronicles: largely fictionalized account of Macbeth’s life
Published twice: 1577 and 1587
Background
Shakespeare altered Holinshed’s account 4 reasons:
1) a more exciting story than is found in the sources (drama)
2) a more complex characterization of Macbeth (theme/artistic)
3) cater to the beliefs of the reigning monarch, King James (politics)
4) Convey idea that there is a divine right of kings, and that to usurp the throne is a crime against humanity (again with the politics)
Writes Macbeth between 1605-1606Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England,
Scotland, and Ireland (1577), authoritative historical text – used as source of real Macbeth, among others
Shakespeare + Macbeth
Political Drama1034 Malcolm II
murdered @ Glamis by friends + possibly grandson Duncan
Duncan killed rivals + took throne
Children: Malcolm + Donald “Bane”
Duncan I
The Real Macbeth
Macbeth mac Findlaech (McFinley)
Dad: Findlaech: Mormaer (ruler) of Moray in northern Scotland
1020 Findlaech killed + throne taken by nephew Gillacomgain (Gill)
Mormaer = second only to king in Scotland
(Side Note) King Duff killed by Donwald (nagged by his wife to do so) a century before Macbeth
Macbeth Makes AllianceThorfinn of Orkney:
a Norse Viking
Thorfinn Sigurdsson called:
Thorfinn Skull-Smasher Thorfinn the Black Thorfinn Raven-Feeder
- pretty well-known for success on battlefield
August 1040 Thorfinn + Macbeth defeat + kill Duncan I in battle
Thorfinn rules northern + Macbeth ruled southern Scotland
Macbeth = good king, strict but fair
1032 Gill + 50 ppl burned to death for murder of Fin (Macbeth no doubt in on this revenge)
Lady Macbeth: Gruoch – originally married to Gill + had son Lulack the Simple
Macbeth marries her after killing her husband
Real Macbeth continued…
King Malcolm II - reigned (1005-34)
Macbeth - reigned (1040-57)
Killed by Macbeth in
battle
Killed by Malcolm III in battle
Duncan I – reigned (1034-40)
Married GruochOne son – Lulack the
Simple
Malcolm III - 1058
Lulack the Simple – king for about 5
minutes (murdered at
Malcolm’s order)
Scotland
Blunt Force Trauma/Head Slice - or Both!
Weaponry with which to keeeel you…
What else can we do
with our time???
No clubs, movies, Xbox…
Besides, 45 is just old…
1054, Earl Siward of Northumberland, who spirited Malcolm to England after Duncan's death, invaded Scotland.
Met and defeated Macbeth at the battle of Birnam Wood / Dunsinane (July 27).
Most of Macbeth's army were killed, but Macbeth escaped. Siward's son and nephew were also killed.
Macbeth continued to reign but was killed in 1057 by Duncan's son Malcolm near Aberdeen. Thorfinn II survived until 1064.
Macbeth’s Downfall
MalcolmAmbushes/kills Lulack
when he claims throne Aggressive +
successful Invaded England many
Xs (thus thanking his benefactor) + was killed in Northumberland
A treacherous soldier, pretending to hand him a key on a spear, put the spear through his eye socket
Is king twice (deposed for a time by Duncan II (his brother’s son), who he later defeated and killed)
Finally defeated, imprisoned, blinded by King Edgar, another son of Malcolm
Duncan’s Sons “They were such sweet boys…” said Grandma.
Donald “Bane”
James Stuart was King James VI of Scotland when Queen Elizabeth's death made him James I of England
With many people convicted of witchcraft on no physical evidence. James I, who believed the witch hysteria, wrote a book about hidden world of witches: Demonology.
The "witches" of the play exist for their role in Macbeth's fictionalized story.
A Matthew Gwynn held a pageant to greet James I, in which three boy-actors played Sibyls + prophesied his future greatness + mentioned Banquo
James supposedly reported that before the execution of his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, there was an apparition of "a bloody head dancing in the air"
An accused witch (after torture) told James and his court that on Halloween of 1590, two hundred witches sailed into the town in sieves.
Political Uses for Witches!
Henry Garnet: a Jesuit and priest, implicated in the Gunpowder Plot, wrote A Treatise of Equivocation about how to mislead and answer ambiguously under oath.
Executed, he may be the "equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven." (Act I – porter scene)
James wrote in his book that witches would give deceptive and double-meaning
prophecies.
Macbeth deals with the fictional ancestors of the Stuart line (Banquo, Fleance)
Presents Banquo more favorably than the play's sources. (In Holinshed, Banquo is Macbeth's active accomplice.)
The procession of kings ends with a mirror (held by Banquo rather than another king)
James could see himself, thus becoming part of the action. Macbeth says he sees more kings afterwards.
That Shakespeare…
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