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THE INFLUENCES
HOLINSHED’S CHRONICLES
Shakespeare's primary source for Macbeth was a hugely popular 16th-century book written by Raphael Holinshed in 1577
(and revised in 1587) called Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. This collection of historic events and popular
legends included the story of an 11th-century Scottish king named Macbeth. Like many writers, Shakespeare used Ho-
linshed’s stories as source material, but then engaged his imagination to create his own dramatic re-telling. Some of the
changes included:
• The real Duncan was a young, weak king, while Shakespeare's Duncan is an old, wise, and popular king.
• The real Macbeth had the support of Scottish chieftains and Banquo when he murdered Duncan, whereas Shakespeare’s
Macbeth has only Lady Macbeth supporting him.
• The real Macbeth was a successful king for ten years before he was overthrown, unlike Shakespeare’s Macbeth who is
overthrown and beheaded soon after taking the throne.
PRIMARY SOURCE: View excerpts from Holinshed’s Chronicles that correspond to Macbeth here:
http://bit.ly/18wa9WY .
Raphael Holinshed. Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande. London, 1577. By permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
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JAMES I
During the middle of Shakespeare's career as a play-
wright, and three years before he wrote Macbeth, James
I became King of England. Scholars have noted the fol-
lowing connections:
• Before James I inherited the throne of England he was
the King of Scotland. When James took the crown,
Shakespeare's London became passionately interested
in all things Scottish. Also, many Scots followed their
king to London, where they often attended the theater.
• James I became a patron of Shakespeare's theater
company and they often staged plays for him.
• Banquo was generally thought to be an ancestor of
James I. It is believed that Shakespeare might have
been paying a compliment to the new king with his
flattering portrayal of Banquo.
• James I authored a treatise called Basilikon Doron
that defends the idea that rulers are given the right to
reign by God, an idea echoed in Macbeth's speeches
about kingship.
PRIMARY SOURCE: View excerpts from the Basilikon Doron
here: http://bit.ly/1aVDgca .
WITCHCRAFT AND
THE SUPERNATURAL
The witches in Macbeth were influenced by three
strange women described in Holinshed's Chronicles,
as "nymphs," "fairies," and "goddesses of destiny."
Scholars believe that Shakespeare might have includ-
ed witches in Macbeth because of the following:
• Belief in witches was common in Shakespeare's day. During Queen Elizabeth’s reign, there were 247 witch trials.
• James I had an avid interest in witchcraft and was thought to be the instigator of a witch hunt during his reign in Scotland.
• James I wrote a book on supernatural creatures and demons called Daemonologie.
• By calling them the "Weird Sisters," Shakespeare seemed to be tying them to the Wyrd, the goddess of fate in Anglo-
Saxon literature. Fate is a significant theme in Macbeth.
PRIMARY SOURCE: View excerpts from Daemonologie here: http://bit.ly/19nh8kB .
TOP: James I. Source: Library of Congress. BOTTOM: Pocahontas at the court of
King James. Source: Library of Congress.
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THE MACBETH CURSE
Mention “Macbeth” in a theater and it will surely elicit gasps of horror from all those "in the know." As the legend goes, the
spells that Macbeth’s witches use came from an authentic black-magic ritual that Shakespeare observed. When the witches
found out that he had used their sacred incantations, they put a curse on the play. Beginning with the first performance in
1606, when Hal Berridge, the boy playing Lady Macbeth suddenly died backstage, there have been disaster stories galore
about productions of Macbeth that have felt the impact of the “curse.”
Next time you are in a theater, make sure to call Macbeth “the Scottish play.” If the actual title happens to slip out, be sure to run
out of the theater, spin around three times, spit, and ask to be let back in. And then just hope that the curse has been reversed!
TO EXPLORE: Watch the following videos with the star of Lincoln Center Theater’s Production, Ethan Hawke, speak about
witchcraft in Macbeth on the PBS Shakespeare Uncovered website:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/shakespeare-uncovered/education/lesson-overview/supernatural-shakespeare-and-macbeth-video-segments/
Also see: “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Is the Cast of “The Scottish Play” Superstitious?”
http://www.theatermania.com/video/macbeth-macbeth-macbeth-is-the-cast-of-the-scottis_482.html?cid=homepage_news
TO DISCUSS: What are your thoughts and beliefs about the supernatural and superstitions? How much do you let them
guide or aect your choices?
COMMON CORE CONNECTION: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or sec-
ondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
Scene from Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre, London, 1875. By permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
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THE LANGUAGE
"
The Elizabethans were an audience of listeners. They
would say, ‘I’m going to hear a play,’ not ‘I’m going to
see a play.’ The Elizabethan audience would pick up on
words and their various meanings that we wouldn’t.
"
MARJORIE GARBER, SHAKESPEAREAN SCHOLAR
Shakespeare was a master wordsmith who had an unrivaled command over the English language. Shakespeare used at
least 15,000 dierent words in his plays and poems (and some attest, close to 30,000), compared to the King James Bible,
which used only 8,000. In addition, as Michael Macrone, author of the book Brush Up Your Shakespeare! explains, it’s dif-
ficult to figure out who first coined a word or phrase, but the Oxford English Dictionary credits Shakespeare with coming
up with over 500 original words.
You can find a great list of Shakespeare’s “Frequently Encountered Words” at the Shakespeare’s Words website:
http://www.shakespeareswords.com/FEW
SHAKESPEARE’S STYLE
Understanding the way Shakespeare structured his verse can be a great tool when trying to unlock more about a charac-
ter’s emotional state, mood, and intentions. Also, like a musical score, the structural choices Shakespeare made help the
reader and/or speaker to naturally feel the tempos and rhythms of the language. There was very little time to rehearse in
Shakespeare’s days, so this was a quick way for actors to get inside the minds and hearts of his characters.
Today we speak in what is called prose, ordinary speech that doesn’t have a specific pattern or rhythm to it. While Shake-
speare sometimes wrote in prose (Macbeth’s letter to Lady Macbeth is in prose), most of Macbeth is written in a specific
type of verse (poetry), called blank verse. Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter—a line of ten syllables that has
a rhythm like a heartbeat. The first syllable/beat is unstressed and the second is stressed (the stressed one is called the
“iamb.”) Here’s a line of unrhymed iambic pentameter from Act 1, Scene 7 of Macbeth:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
Here’s how you would read it aloud:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
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While this is the basic structure of unrhymed iambic pen-
tameter, Shakespeare loved to break his own “rules,” and
did so intentionally to create dierent emotional aects.
For example, in Macbeth’s famous speech from Act 5,
Scene 5, he adds a syllable to the first line giving it what
is called a “feminine ending” (eleven beats instead of ten):
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
Some questions to consider when analyzing a line like
this with students could be:
• Why do you think Shakespeare chose to end the line
with an unstressed syllable? (A “feminine ending?”)
What does that tells us about how Macbeth feels
about “tomorrow?”
• Shakespeare also ends the first line of Hamlet’s “To be
or not to be” speech from Act 3, Scene 1 with a femi-
nine ending. How are these two speeches similar?
• How would the meaning be dierent if the “ands”
were not stressed?
• What has happened the moment before Macbeth be-
gins this speech, and how might that influence how it
is spoken?
• Why does Shakespeare have Macbeth repeat the word
“tomorrow” three times?
• If iambic pentameter represents a normal heartbeat,
how do you think Shakespeare’s language changes
when a character is terrified, excited, depressed, an-
gry, etc. (Helpful hint: have students imagine what happens to their heartbeat when they experience these emotions.)
See actor Patrick Stewart discuss this famous speech here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZnaXDRwu84 . Watch him
perform it here: http://bit.ly/5fCSGi .
LITERARY DEVICES
The majority of Shakespeare’s plays were performed at the Globe, an open-spaced stage that was lit by sunlight, and had
no curtain and little scenery. It was up to Shakespeare to use his words to "paint a picture." Shakespeare’s language, rich
with literary devices like similes, metaphors, foreshadowing, dramatic irony, and imagery, oer numerous Common Core
entry-points for an in-depth analysis of the text.
New York: Federal Art Project, between 1936 and 1938. Source: Library of Congress.
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Simile: a comparison of two dierent things
that often uses like, than, or as.
Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it.
(LADY MACBETH; ACT 1, SCENE 5)
Metaphor: a “condensed” comparison that expresses
a complex idea in a precise way.
O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife.
(MACBETH; ACT 3, SCENE 2)
Foreshadowing: an indication of what is to
come in the future.
Fair is foul and foul is fair.
(WITCHES; ACT 1, SCENE 1)
Dramatic Irony: irony that occurs when the meaning of
the situation is understood by the audience but not by
the characters in the play.
For none of woman bornshall harm Macbeth. (We find out
that Macdu was born via caesarean.)
(WITCHES; ACT 4, SCENE 1)
Alliteration: The repetition of the same sounds or
of the same kinds of sounds (often consonants) in
a series of words.
But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears.
(MACBETH; ACT. 3, SCENE 4)
Personification: giving human characteristics to
an abstract idea or something which is not human.
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
(LADY MACBETH; ACT 1, SCENE 7)
Imagery
Macbeth is rich with imagery! Challenge students to
find examples of the following imagery in Macbeth:
Nature
Night/Darkness
Blood
Sleep
Clothing
LEFT: Macbeth. London : J.& J. Boydell, 1799. Source: Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library, University of Pennsylvania. RIGHT: Macbeth, Act 5, scene 1, Lady
Macbeth sleepwalking, 1797. By permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
A SAMPLING OF LITERARY DEVICES FOUND IN MACBETH
