Shakespeare’s Macbeth

What you need to know about the man and the play

Do you recognize this man?

Who is Shakespeare?

• Born April 23, 1564 in Stratford on Avon (near London)– Family was well to do– Had 7 brothers and sisters

• Education– Went to free Grammar School until he was

15– Studied mainly Latin—read mythology, Ovid

and Plutarch (used these as sources in his plays)

• Married Anne Hathaway in 1582 – She was 8 years older– They had 3 children

• Lived in London (still owned land in Stratford)– Became a poet and an actor with Lord

Chamberlain’s Men– Wrote 36 plays grouped into tragedies,

comedies and histories– Revolutionized English stage with his stories

and use of language

• Retired sometime around 1611-1613 and returned to Stratford

• Died April 23, 1616

Elizabethan England• Elizabeth I was born in 1533, the

daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

• Queen Elizbeth I ruled from 1558 to 1603; the period of her rule is known as the Elizabethan Age in England (also known as the Renaissance)

• Elizabeth’s death marked the end of the Tutor dynasty

• The official religion under Queen Elizabeth was Protestantism (the Church of England)

Witchcraft in Elizabethan England

• Renewed belief in the supernatural during the Renaissance

• First printed books were bibles or contained religious themes—many of these books promoted ideas about witches and witchcraft

• People blamed unexplainable events as the work of witches e.g. frequent outbreaks of the deadly Black Death, a bad harvest, houses burning down in fires, foods curdling

• People accused of being Elizabethan Witches: Women, Old, Poor, Unprotected, Single women or widows

• Women were expected to produce cures for most ailments as part of their house keeping. 'Wise women' also used herbs for this purpose. People found this to be suspicious behavior.

• The 1562 Elizabethan Witchcraft Act was passed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was an act 'agaynst Conjuracions Inchauntmentes and Witchecraftes'.

• Witches convicted of murder by witchcraft were to be executed but the punishment for witches in England was hanging, not burning at the stake which was the terrible death that was inflicted on French and Spanish witches

• The attitude of Queen Elizabeth was certainly more lenient than those of her neighbours in France and Spain, possibly because her mother, Anne Boleyn had been accused of being a witch

King James I

• Became King in 1603; member of the Stuart dynasty and already King of Scotland

• Gunpowder Plot , 1605 was a plan to assassinate King James, one of many assassination attempts/plans

• Fascinated with witches and wrote a book on witchcraft

• Shakespeare wrote Macbeth for King James because he was a descendant of Banquo (a character in the play)

• King James became a patron of Shakespeare and his acting troop, the Kings Men

History of Macbeth

• The “real” Macbeth was born into a ruling family in 11th-century Scotland

• The King of Scotland at the time, Duncan, was unpopular and ineffectual as a ruler– He was killed, possibly by Macbeth

• Macbeth became a popular king for 17 years

• Duncan’s son Malcolm invaded Scotland and Macbeth was killed in 1057

Bibliography

• http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/• http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/• http://www.shakespearehigh.com/• http://students.roanoke.edu/t/tnunez/

MACBETHomepage.html• http://images.google.com/• Gibson, Rex, Cambridge School Shakespeare,

Cambridge University Press, New York: 1993.