Read the following information prior to reading the play:

After reading Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles,* William Shakespeare was inspired to dramatize the major events and legends from Scotland’s history in Macbeth. Holinshed revealed how Macbeth’s imagination was first fired by the prophecies of “three women in strange and wild apparel, resembling creatures of the elder world.” Encouraged by the importunity of his wife, Macbeth slew Duncan, with the aid of Banquo and other friends. Holinshed gave no details of the murder of Duncan. Shakespeare adapted this episode from the murder of King Duff by Donwald, who also was encouraged by an ambitious wife. Duff is portrayed in the woodcut in the Chronicle as an old warrior with an ample white beard. According to Holinshed, Macbeth at first was a good king and made admirable laws, but after some years, remembering the words of the Weird Sisters, he began to fear that he would also be murdered. Banquo was slain accordingly, but Fleance, his son, escaped and became the ancestor of the House of Stuart. The Chronicle does not, however, record any appearance of Banquo’s ghost. Macbeth’s character, now degenerated and warned by a prophecy, begins to suspect Macduff; but a certain witch “told that he should never be slain with man born of any woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the castell [sic] of Dunsinane.”

When Macduff fled, Macbeth went to Macduff’s castle, which was unsuspectingly open to him, and instigated the murders of Macduff’s wife, children and people. Macduff took refuge in England and came to Malcolm, and their long conversation was closely reproduced in Act IV, scene iii. After this there was a general revolt against Macbeth. When Macduff reached Bernane wood he ordered his men to cut down boughs to cover their advance against Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth led his men out, though he perceived that the first prophecy was fulfilled, but fled on horseback when he saw the great numbers in Macduff’s army. Macduff pursued him and brought him to bay. Macbeth cried that he was not appointed to be slain by any creature born of woman. Macduff replied, “It is true, Macbeth, and now shall thine insatiable cruelty have an end, for I am even he that thy wizzards [sic] have told thee of; who was never born of my mother, but ripped out of her womb; therewithal he stept [sic] unto him, and slew him in the place. Then cutting his head from his shoulders, he set it upon a pole, and brought it unto Malcolm.”

This play was likely written in 1606. The style, and especially the teeming poetic imagery of the great speeches, belongs to the period of King Lear [1606] rather than Hamlet [1601]. In Macbeth, a horrible beauty permeates Shakespeare’s metaphors as his infamous iambic pentameter [or blank verse] dramatizes a universal human dilemma. The power of Shakespeare’s language and the beauty of his poetry lend dignity to the story of a once noble man who chooses an ignoble path. Through Shakespeare’s masterful handling of his stagecraft, the audience feels the terrible rightness of Macbeth’s fate and the tragic waste of his life. The remarks of the Porter in Act II are likely a reference to the notorious trial of Father Garnet on March 28, 1606 for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. It states, “faith, here’s an 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”[II.iii.8-11]. Garnet admitted in his defence that he had deliberately deceived his accusers, and justified himself by the Jesuit doctrine of equivocation.

A probable occasion of the play was the visit of King Christian of Denmark, King James’ brother-in-law, to the English Court from July 17th to August 14th, 1606. Shakespeare and his company were the King’s Players, and it was a natural occasion for them to produce a story of Scottish history touching on the ancestry of their patron. In the previous summer, when King James paid a visit to the University of Oxford, three small boys dressed like nymphs greeted him with a short Latin dialogue reminding him of the ancient legend of the Three Sisters who had prophesied the future glories of Banquo’s descendants.

In Macbeth, as in other plays intended for the Court, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare worked to compliment the royal audience. Three key examples are the vision of the eight kings seen by Macbeth [IV.i], the reference to King James’ divine touch in healing those afflicted by the King’s Evil [IV.iii], and the transformation of James’ ancestor, Banquo, from an accomplice in regicide to a victim of Macbeth’s evil.

Some scholars suggest Shakespeare did not have time to polish the play because the King of Denmark arrived somewhat unexpectedly; thus they claim he worked on the high scenes, leaving the last act sketched out, the minor characters slightly drawn, and trusting an assistant to fill in the gaps. In the Elizabethan era, it was a common practice for dramatists to collaborate, especially when a play was needed in a hurry. However, other scholars emphasize the obvious strengths of this play and hail Macbeth as a great masterpiece.

* Holinshed, Raphael. (1927) Macbeth. In “Holinshed’s Chronicles as used in Shakespeare’s plays” (pp. 207-224). London: Dent.