Macbeth Before Shakespeare

"Macbeth before Shakespeare is the history of a man and a myth. The man is the historical King Mac bethad while the myth is his literary descendant Macbeth. During the five and a half centuries before William Shakespeare wrote his Tragedie of Macbeth the man was replaced by the myth that was recreated in the hands of successive authors. The real prince's ancestors had been immigrants to Britain from Ireland and Mac bethad's career began after the murder of his father by his cousins. The literary character was created as the family of his rival Malcolm Canmore became supreme and wrote their own history with Macbeth as their villain. The evolution continued and in the fifteenth century he was accompanied by otherworldly beings, diabolical prophecies, and natural phenomenon. Macbeth was recast early in the sixteenth century and took his place in the intellectual warfare of Scotland. The legend moved to England in Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles where a new Macbeth had a complex personality with fashionable interests in law and unfashionable ones in the occult. The succession of King James I of England led English acting companies, such as the Lord Chamberlain's Men with actor and playwright William Shakespeare, to produce plays with Scottish scenes or characters. King James became their patron and as a member of the King's Men, Shakespeare wrote his Tragedie of Macbeth, one of their most popular plays from the seventeenth century to the present"--

Murder mayhem and magic.Pushed by his wife to seize the throne Macbeth kills his rightful liege and then tries desperately to hold onto the kingdom that he has wrongfully usurped. Prophesy and magic abound in this dark moody and atmospheric play.Out damned spot! Out I say!One- two -why then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie my lord fie! A soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call ourpower to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

Presents the complete text of Shakespeare's classic play about Macbeth, a man who kills the king in an attempt to seize the crown of Scotland for himself, and includes an essay by Harold Bloom, introduction, and information about the Shakespearean stage.

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