About Macbeth

Legend says that Macbeth was written in 1605 or 1606 and performed at Hampton Court in 1606 for King James I and his brother-in-law, King Christian of Denmark. Whether it was actually performed for the King, or was premiered at The Globe Theatre like most of Shakespeare's plays, there can be little doubt that aspects of the play were intended to please James I, who was by this time the patron of Shakespeare's theater group. For example, the character of Banquo, the legendary root of the Stuart family tree, is depicted very favorably, perhaps to please the king (a Stuart). The play is quite short, possibly because Shakespeare knew that James preferred short plays, and contains a supernatural element that James, who himself published a book on witches and how to detect them, would have appreciated. Even something as minor as a Scottish defeat of the Danes may have been omitted from the play in order to appeal to King Christian.

The material for the play was drawn from Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1587), but Shakespeare ­ and subsequent readers and editors ­ classified it as a tragedy, not a history. This is perhaps due to the fact that the story contains many fabrications, including the entire character of Banquo, who was invented by a 16th-century Scottish historian in order to validate the Stuart family line. In addition to these fictionalizations, Shakespeare took many liberties with the original story, including manipulating the characters of Macbeth and Duncan to suit his purposes. In Holinshed's account, Macbeth is a ruthless and valiant leader who, after killing Duncan, rules competently and fairly for many years, while Duncan is a young and soft-willed man, not a particularly good ruler. Shakespeare heightens certain aspects of these characters in order to create a polarity between them, making Duncan out to be a venerable, kindly older king and changing Macbeth into a younger, indecisive, troubled man who could not possibly rule well. One aspect of the story of Macbeth that, surprisingly, Shakespeare did not invent, was the part played by the witches. Holinshed's account also contains these witches.

Macbeth is certainly not the only play with historical themes that is full of fabrications. However, there are other reasons why this play is considered a tragedy rather than a history. One of these is the play's universality. Rather than illustrating