The+REAL+Macbeth

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 * __Prereading Context Notes__**

Macbeth was a king of the Scots whose rule was marked by efficient government and the promotion of Christianity, but who is best known as the murderer and usurper in William Shakespeare's tragedy. Shakespeare's Macbeth bears little resemblance to the real 11th century Scottish king.

In August 1040, he killed the ruling king, Duncan I, in battle near Elgin, Morayshire. Macbeth became king. His marriage to Kenneth III's granddaughter Gruoch strengthened his claim to the throne. In 1045, Macbeth defeated and killed Duncan I's father Crinan at Dunkeld. In 1050, he is known to have travelled to Rome for a papal jubilee. He was also a brave leader and made successful forays over the border into Northumbria, England. ( []) October 25, 2011.

He was the son of Findlaech of Moray. He came to power in 1040 by killing Duncan, though the phrasing in the source text implies this was in battle rather than by assassination. It also leaves doubt as to whether Duncan died by Macbeth's own hand, or if he simply perished when Macbeth's forces met his own.

Macbeth ruled for at least 14 years, possibly 17, and his name is associated with many "humane" laws protecting women and children. Toward the end of his reign, he visited Rome and "distributed silver," meaning he tossed coins to the people in the streets. He was defeated in battle by Malcolm Canmore, Duncan's son, in 1054 on the plains near Dundee, but his death took place at Lumphanan in 1057. [|www.sff.net/people/catherine-wells/barefact.htm/] October 24, 2011.

Most of Scotland's agricultural wealth in this period came from pastorlism rather than arable farming The average amount of land used by a husbandman in Scotland might have been around 26 acres
 * __Scotland During Macbeth's Time__ **
 * Pastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, sheep, and so forth.
 * Arable farming land or crops of this type.
 * A person who cultivates the land; a farmer.

Macbethwas the first king of Scots to introduce feudalism to Scotland.
 * The dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection.

Cattle, pigs and cheeses were among the most produced foodstuffs, but of course a vast range of foodstuffs were produced, from sheep and fish, rye and barley, to bee wax and honey.

The population of Scotland in this period is unknown, the first reliable information in 1755 shows the inhabitants of Scotland as 1,265,380.

Scotland throughout this period spoke the Gaelic language, then simply called //Scottish//, or in Latin, //lingua Scotica//

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 * __King James I, Shakespeare and Macbeth__ **
 * King James the first lived between the 19th of June 1566- 27th of March 1625.
 * Was the king of Scots on July 24, 1567 and was then named King James the 6th.
 * He then inherited the thrown of England and Ireland on March 24, 1603 and was crowned King James the 1st.
 * James himself was a talented scholar.
 * He lived in the “ Golden Age” of Elizabethan literature and drama and writers like Shakespeare were supported by King James.

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 * King James was interested in the plays of Shakespeare’s plays.
 * He used the theater as a propaganda tool to the public and he also used it to entertain himself and the other Nobel men.

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 * Since King James was interested in Shakespeare’s s plays he “sponsored“him.
 * His theater company was then called the King’s Men.

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 * Macbeth was written so that William Shakespeare could win the approval of King James the 1st.
 * Shakespeare could not criticize the government in his plays because it could have been deadly for him.
 * Since King James the first was intrigued by witches Shakespeare included Witches to the play of Macbeth.
 * The witches are the characters who miss lead Macbeth in the play.
 * In the play there is the character Banqou in real life King James is a descendant of him.
 * In the play Banqou is a noble and incorruptible man and is loyal to the King and he trys to foil Macbeth’s plans.
 * Although in real life Banqou helped assist in the assassination of the King of Scotland.

The supernatural is used abundantly because of popular belief and demand from the people. And these superstitions are not confined to merely the lower class, ignorant, or common folk. Wealthy and better educated Elizabethans also entertain beliefs in the supernatural. ([])
 * __Witchcraft and Superstition in Shakespeare's Time__ **

Superstitions in the Elizabethan Era that Effected the Everyday Lives of the People

 * Saying "God Bless You" following a sneeze - Elizabethans believed that the devil could enter your body when you opened your mouth to sneeze - the blessing warded off the Devil.
 * An eclipse was seen as an omen of evil.
 * It was unlucky for a black cat to cross your path ( Black is the color associated with evil magic and a cat was strongly associated with a witch's familiar.
 * The 'seventh son of a seventh son' was believed to possess supernatural powers.
 * It was unlucky to keep the feather of a peacock ( the eye-shape on the feathers of peacocks were seen as the 'Evil-eye').
 * Pin bay leaves to your pillow on the Eve of St Valentine, one at each corner and one in the middle and you will then dream of your future husband.
 * Touch wood to guard against bad luck. This Celtic superstition dates back to the Dark Ages when it was believed that a tree possessed magical powers.
 * Not to walk under ladders - considered bad luck as ladders are associated with the gallows and executions.
 * Shoes on a table - If you put shoes on a table it was very bad luck - inviting an imminent death.
 * Spilling Salt or pepper - Seen as bad luck - the cost of these spices were extremely expensive during the Elizabethan era.

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__**The Theatre During Shakespeare's**__ <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">__**Time/Production History of Macbeth**__

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The Globe Theatre was constructed in 1599, Southwark, London. It was an open-aired circular theatre that could house 3,000 audience members. It was 3 stories high, 100 feet wide, and the stage was 28 feet deep, 5 feet tall, and 43 feet wide. The stage was cleverly positioned so that the sun would be perfectly lit for the actor while preforming.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">In Shakespeare's time there were no female actors because acting was not considered an honourable job. The role of a women had to be played by young boys who had not gone through puberty, to have higher pitched voices. In this time the plays were very last minute. Some actors recieved their lines right before the play, or as they were preforming. A technique called “cue acting” was used. This is when someone sat behind the curtains and whispered actors their lines. When going to see a play, people would go to The Globe Theatre. Spectators had many seating options. They could choose a groundling spot which stood the entire play, or you could sit in the galleries and pay an extra penny for a cushion. And the most expensive was to sit on a chair on the actual stage. In 1613 The Globe burnt down when a spark from a cannon during a performance of Henry VIII, burnt the highly flammable thatched roof. A new Globe was built the following year. The new Globe lasted until 1644, when Puritans tore it down during the Civil War(tripod.com/theatre).

(Globe Theater)

//<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">**The Curse of Macbeth** // It is said that real rituals or spells were used by Shakespeare in his play Macbeth and that people that practised ‘witchery’ at the time were offended that he used ‘actual spells’ and the witches put a curse on the play. Since that time there has been strange occurrences in so many different productions of Macbeth.

This play seemed doomed from the start with its first performance in 1906 Shakespeare himself was forced to play the lead of Lady Macbeth when the lead male suddenly became ill and died not long after. Just to add to the already cursed play King James 1 didn’t like the play and banned it for 5 years.

In 1672 in Amsterdam the actor playing Macbeth had a real dagger instead of the prop and killed the actor playing Duncan on stage in front of everyone in the audience.

During the performance in New York in 1849 a riot broke out among the crowd and as a result 31 people were trampled to death.

In 1942 three actors in one production of Macbeth (Duncan and two witches) mysteriously died. In the same production a costume designer for the play committed suicide.

There are so many more productions that have had odd happenings this is only a few.

It is also believed to be bad luck to say the name of the play or quote from it unless acting or rehearsing for it. Most will just refer to it as the Scottish play or that play this especially goes mostly for actors and if the name is said (most times just in the theatre) there are certain rituals you must perform to lift the curse. The one I learned was you must leave the room spin around and spit both three times and knock and wait to be let back into the theatre although there are said to be may ways of lifting the curse. ( [] )

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 * Differences in Theatre back in Shakesphere's time**

Back In Shakespeare's time there were some major differences in the way a theatre was run. An audience back them would eat, drink and talk where as now a days eating and drinking in the theatre is forbidden and talking is not acceptable behaviour. Theatres where opened at the top so they could use the natural light to light the stage much like a sports field. Now however all the theaters are closed off and are lit by extensive lighting that is not natural. Plays were preformed in the afternoon to account for the day light that was needed to light the stage they did not have evening shows like we do now. Plays back then also used very little scenery to create the atmosphere but instead they used their dialect to create the scene and give the audience a better feeling as to what it was like.

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 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">__The Great Chain of Being__ **


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">1579 **drawing of the Great Chain of Being

Christian concept detailing a strict, religious hierarchical structure of all matter and life, believed to have been decreed by the Christian God. (__ @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_chain_of_being __)

The universe was arranged in a hierarchical order (the highest beings to the lowest). Every creature on earth was superior to some beings and inferior to others. Just as God and the angels were superior to humans, so humans were superior to animals, animals to plants, and plants to nonliving objects, such as stones. Hierarchy: The king (was said that the king was preferred by God) is superior to noblemen, who are superior to religious clerics and priests, who are superior to merchant, who are superior to peasants/the populace. (__ @http://sites.google.com/site/mrrudermansclasses/macbeth-and-the-great-chain-of-being __)

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">The Great Chain of Being, in Latin it is Scala Naturae, literally meaning "Ladder Of Stair Way Of Nature". <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">( [])

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">People in Shakespeare's time didn't think like us. We live in the post Darwinian age. Things are supposed to improve over time as the weak die out. Before Darwin people assumed that the further we lived after the date of Creation the worse things got because we lived more distantly from the perfect time. <span style="font-family: centaur,serif;">( [])

-a powerful visual metaphor for a divinely inspired universal hierarchy ranking all forms of higher and lower life; humans are represented by the male alone. ([])

([]) Research: 1. __[]__ 2. __[]__
 * The Great Chain of Being was a Christian belief that showed universal hierarchy for all of God's creations from the highest to the lowest forms of life.
 * It started with God, then the King (Divine Right of Kings), then human, animals, flora and fauna etc down to even objects such as rocks or other "less noble" creations.
 * Believed when people were out of the Great Chain of Being nature was upset, in turmoil and not functioning.
 * Macbeth disobeyed the Great Chain of Being and the natural order by killing King Duncan.
 * The Great Chain of Being: a powerful visual metaphor for a divinely inspired universal hierarchy ranking all forms of higher and lower life; humans are represented by the male alone. From Didacus Valades, Rhetorica Christiana (1579). (1)
 * Its major premise was that every existing thing in the universe had its "place" in a divinely planned hierarchical order, which was pictured as a chain vertically extended. An object's "place" depended on the relative proportion of "spirit" and "matter" it contained--the less "spirit" and the more "matter," the lower down it stood. At the bottom, for example, stood various types of inanimate objects, such as metals, stones, and the four elements (earth, water, air, fire). Higher up were various members of the vegetative class, like trees and flowers. Then came animals; then humans; and then angels. At the very top was God. Then within each of these large groups, there were other hierarchies. For example, among metals, gold was the noblest and stood highest; lead had less "spirit" and more matter and so stood lower. (Alchemy was based on the belief that lead could be changed to gold through an infusion of "spirit.") The various species of plants, animals, humans, and angels were similarly ranked from low to high within their respective segments. Finally, it was believed that between the segments themselves, there was continuity (shellfish were lowest among animals and shaded into the vegetative class, for example, because without locomotion, they most resembled plants). (2)
 * The fear of "disorder" was not merely philosophical--it had significant political ramifications. The proscription against trying to rise beyond one's place was of course useful to political rulers, for it helped to reinforce their authority. The implication was that civil rebellion caused the chain to be broken, and according to the doctrine of correspondences, this would have dire consequences in other realms. It was a sin against God, at least wherever rulers claimed to rule by "Divine Right." (And in England, the King was also the head of the Anglican Church.) In Shakespeare, it was suggested that the sin was of cosmic proportions: civil disorders were often accompanied by meteoric disturbances in the heavens. (Before Halley's theory about periodic orbits, comets, as well as meteors, were thought to be disorderly heavenly bodies.) The need for strong political rule was in fact very significant, for the Renaissance had brought an end for the most part to feudalism, the medieval form of political organization. The major political accomplishment of the Renaissance, perhaps, was the establishment of effective central government, not only in the north but in the south as well. Northern Europe saw the rise of national monarchies headed by kings, especially in England and France. Italy saw the rise of the territorial city-state often headed by wealthy oligarchic families. Not only did the chain of being concept provide a rationale for the authority of such rulers; it also suggested that there was ideal behavior that was appropriate to their place in the order of things. It is no wonder then that much Renaissance literature is concerned with the ideals of kingship, with the character and behavior of rulers, as in Machiavelli's Prince or Shakespeare's Henry V. Other ideals and values that were represented in the literature were even more significant. It was the intellectual movement known as Humanism that may have expressed most fully the values of the Renaissance and made a lasting contribution to our own culture.

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 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">__The Tragic Hero__ **
 * Aristotle is the person who is credited with the inventing the “Tragic Hero”.
 * In his description of what a tragic hero is he states that they cannot be a person who is good but they also cannot be bad. The person must be a person who is both good and bad so that the reader or audience can relate to the actor or character better since they would be more like ones self.


 * The tragic hero is a great, heroic character in a dramatic tragedy such as Macbeth, who is bound for failure, or downfall.
 * Macbeth is a tragic hero because he is both good and bad. In the beginning of the book he is good but then becomes corrupted with power making him bad which makes him the tragic hero.

The Tragic Formula: > "For brave Macbeth- well he deserves the name--" (1.2.18)
 * 1) The person who is the tragic hero must appear to be noble

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #424242; display: block; font-family: verdana,sans-serif; height: 1px; left: 0px; line-height: 17px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">In 1050, he is known to have travelled to Rome for a papal jubilee. He was also a brave leader and made successful forays over the border into Northumbria, England.

Corruption Of Macbeth
The Corruption of: MacBeth []

In life, some people crave power above all else, whether its wealth, control or position. Once some has been gained, it can be very hard not to let it go to your head. In the story of MacBeth, the lead character is not satisfied with the little amount of power he has. This thirst for more power is augmented when he becomes the thane of cawdor. MacBeth’s problem is that he can’t stop there. He wants the ultimate power that comes with being king. The only way he can become king is by killing Duncan and this is the beginning of MacBeth’s corruption. MacBeth then kills Banquo and MacDuff's family in order to stay in power. This displays that he has become even more corrupt as king. By the end he is so completely corrupt that his people come and rise against him and he finally meets his demise. These points show that “the more power that MacBeth gained the more corrupt he became”.

At the beginning of MacBeth, MacBeth’s title did not give him much power. His title restricted him to the role of a soldier for the King. As the Thane of Glamis MacBeth was nothing more than a loyal soldier and servant to King Duncan, fighting bravely in a bloody civil war. While performing his duty