Shakespeare's Sources for the Tragedy Are the Accounts of Macbeth, Macduff, and Duncan

Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1606, with 1607 being the very latest possible date. The earliest account of a performance of what was likely Shakespeare's play is April 1611, when Simon Forman recorded seeing such a play at the Globe Theatre. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book for a specific performance.

Shakespeare's sources for the tragedy are the accounts of Macbeth, Macduff, and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

In the back-stage world of theatre, some believe the play is cursed and will not mention its name aloud, referring to it instead as The Scottish play.

Over the centuries, the play has attracted the greatest actors in the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The play has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, comic books, video games and other media.

ACT 1 SCENE I: A desert place.
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches

First Witch

When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second Witch

When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.

Third Witch

That will be ere the set of sun.

First Witch

Where the place?

Second Witch

Upon the heath.

Third Witch

There to meet with Macbeth.

First Witch

I come, Graymalkin!

Second Witch

Paddock calls.

Third Witch

Anon.

ALL

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Exeunt
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Macbeth Short Summary

The play begins on an open stretch of land in medieval Scotland. Three Witches enter and give the prophecy that the civil war will end that day and that at sunset they will meet Macbeth. The Witches are summoned to leave, but they do not leave without stating that what is normally “fair” will be “foul,” and what is “foul” will be “fair.”

King Duncan learns that Macbeth has been victorious and has defeated Macdonwald. The Thane of Cawdor has betrayed Duncan and is accused of being a traitor. Duncan orders the Thane of Cawdor’s execution and announces that Macbeth will receive the title of Thane of Cawdor.

Macbeth and Banquo leave the battlefield and meet the Witches. The Witches state the prophecy that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor and king and that Banquo will be the father of kings, but not king himself. Macbeth has been victorious on the battlefield and the war is at an end—to what greatness should he now aspire?

The Witches spark the ambitious nature in Macbeth, as he knows his rise to power would greatly be enhanced by being named Thane of Cawdor. After the Witches vanish, Ross and Angus arrive and announce that Macbeth has been named Thane of Cawdor. Banquo is skeptical of the Witches, but Macbeth, driven by a desire for power, considers
Analysis
First written between 1611-12; first performed in 1623.
Macbeth tells of a man who is deceived by himself and his wife. The play opens with thunder and lightning and the appearance of three witches--supernatural beings. Due to the fact that this is the beginning of the play, the opening Act, it foreshadows the central theme of the play--evil.--Submitted by Shanika.
Basically, there are three witches who predict Macbeth's future; it then plays on his mind when the first prediction comes true--he becomes Thane of Cawdor. Then he would go on to be king. He writes and tells his wife and they were both really excited. When Macbeth gets back to his castle, he and his wife decide that the only way he can become king is if they kill King Duncan. With power gone to his head, Macbeth slowly starts to 'lose the plot', as does Lady Macbeth.--Submitted by.

Macbeth captures the timeless nature of the human experience. There is greed for power, murderous evil scheming, and the nobility of the fight for good and evil. The tortuous guilty self-flagellation that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth succumb to is such a base human emotion. Without realizing it they are both lost in the depth of the chasm they willingly stepped into. Those are elements of "a classic" and of course no one questions that Shakespeare's Macbeth, written in 1606, still plays well today.

List of Characters

Macbeth—Thane of Glamis, later King of Scotland

Lady Macbeth—Macbeth’s wife and supporter of her husband’s quest for power

Duncan—King of Scotland

Malcolm—Duncan’s older son

Donalbain—Duncan’s younger son

Banquo—General in the Scottish Army and Macbeth’s friend

Fleance—Banquo’s son who is seen as a threat by Macbeth

Macduff—Nobleman of Scotland and rival of Macbeth

History of Macbeth

Macbeth was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies pages 131 to 151 inclusive, in the division of "Tragedies." It was registered in the books of the Stationers' Company, on the 8th of November, 1623, by Blount and Jaggard, the publishers of the folio, as one of the plays "not formerly entered to other men." It was written between 1604 and 1610; the former limit being fixed by the allusion to the union of England and Scotland under James I, and the latter by the MS. Diary of Dr. Simon Forman, who saw the play performed "at the Globe, 1610, the 20th of April, Saturday." It may then have been a new play, but it is more probable, as nearly all critics agree, that it was written in 1605 or 1606. The accession of James made Scottish subjects popular in England, and the tale of Macbeth and Banquo would be one of the first to be brought forward, as Banquo was held to be an ancestor of the new king. A Latin "interlude" on this subject was performed at Oxford in 1605, on the occasion of the king's visit to the city; but there is no reason for supposing that Shakespeare got the hint of his tragedy from that source.

It is barely possible that there was an earlier play on the subject of macbeth. Collier finds in the Registers of the Stationers' Company, under the date of August 27, 1596, the entry of a Ballad of Makdobeth, which he gives plausible reasons for supposing to have been a drama, and not a "ballad" properly so called. There appears to be a reference to the same piece in Kemp's Nine Days' Wonder, printed in 1600, where it is called a "miserable stolne story," and said to be the work of "a penny Poet."
The Weird Sisters

Strangely enough the word weird has come into modern English entirely from its use in Macbeth. The word occurs six times in this play as usually printed: five times in the expression "weird sisters" (I. iii. 32; I. v. 8; II. i. 20; III. iv. 133; IV. i. 136), and once in the phrase "the weird women" (III. i. 2). Stranger still, _weird_ does not appear at all in the only authoritative text of the tragedy, that of the First Folio. In that edition the word is weyword in the first three passages in the play, and weyard in the last three. It was Theobold, the dearest foe of Pope, who saw that Shakespeare must have written weird, and that this rare word had been changed because of "the ignorance of the copyists." Modern editors accept the suggestion of Theobold; but I believe that the full force of the word weird is often unapprehended, even by special students of the play.

In Anglo-Saxon literature, "Wyrd" is the name of the personified goddess of fate. Wyrd is "the lord of every man." The word is also a common noun; each man has his own wyrd, or destiny.

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Macbeth One-Act-Play

Quotes from Macbeth Short-story 1. Scene 1 1. Scene 2 Sisters -- Three WitchesMagic is at the very core of Macbeth. There is no doubt that the witches incite Macbeth into action. How do they do it and why? Roanoke's witches are plotting for the throne. Their plan is to give it to Duncan's eldest son, Malcolm. Along the way their scheme affects the lives of every man, woman, and child in Scotland, but it works when Malcolm is crowned king.

The witches are aided along the way by their familiars. In medieval times, people thought that the familiars of witches were devils in disguise. The first witch's familiar is named Graymalkin. Graymalkin comes to her in the form of a cat. The second witch's familiar is Paddock. Most people believe that Paddock serves his witch in the form of a toad; however, my research has proven that he actually serves her in the form of a hedge-hog. There is a grouping of lines in the script that supports this idea:

ACT IV. SCENE I.
A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. Thunder.

Enter the three Witches.

FIRST WITCH.
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.

SECOND WITCH.
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.

THIRD WITCH.
Harpier cries, "'Tis time, 'tis time."

In Anglo-Saxon literature, "Wyrd" is the name of the personified goddess of fate. Wyrd is "the lord of every man." The word is also a common noun; each man has his own wyrd, or destiny.
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Macbeth (c.1603–1607). She is the wife to the play's protagonist, Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman. After goading him into committing regicide, she becomes Queen of Scotland, but later suffers pangs of guilt for her part in the crime. She dies off-stage in the last act, an apparent suicide.

The character's origins lie in the accounts of Kings Duff and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of Britain familiar to Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth appears to be a composite of two separate and distinct personages in Holinshed's work: Donwald's nagging, murderous wife in the account of King Duff, and Macbeth's ambitious wife in the account of King Duncan.

Lady Macbeth is a powerful presence in the play, most notably in the first two acts. Following the murder of King Duncan, however, her role in the plot diminishes. She becomes an uninvolved spectator to Macbeth's plotting, and a nervous hostess at a banquet dominated by her husband's hallucinations. Her fifth act sleepwalking scene is a turning point in the play, and her line, "Out, damned spot!," has become a phrase familiar to most speakers of the English language. The report of her death late in the fifth act provides the inspiration for Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech.

Analysts see in the character of Lady Macbeth the conflict between femininity and masculinity, as they are impressed in cultural norms. Lady Macbeth suppresses her instincts toward compassion, motherhood, and fragility — associated with femininity — in favour of ambition, ruthlessness, and the singleminded pursuit of power. This conflict colours the entire drama, and sheds light on gender-based preconceptions from Shakespearean England to the present.