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Shakespeare's life
Shakespeare's plays are read and performed all over the world. Yet they were written by an ordinary Englishman almost four hundred years ago. Ben Johnson, a fellow writer of Shakespeare, said that he was not for any one century, but for all time. One might add that he was for all places and all races.
We do not know many firm facts about most ordinary people of William Shakespeare's time, but we do know quite a lot about him. Several documents, or papers, about him survive. They include baptismal and burial records, business and theatre papers, and his Will. We also know a great deal about life in the sixteenth century. From all this we can build up a picture of Shakespeare's life.
Shakespeare was born about the 23rd April 1564, in the family home at Henley Street, in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small town in England about 100 km from London, the capital city. He was christened on that day in Holy Trinity church in Stratford. He was the third of the eight children, four boys and four girls, of John and Mary Shakespeare.
John's father, Richard, had been a farmer in a village a few miles from Stratford. John, like others of his generation, rejected the farming life in favour of learning a profitable trade. He became a glove-maker in Stratford, which was quickly becoming bigger and richer.
Stratford was a flourishing market town of about 1400 people, with many trades, the chief of which was brewing beer. It had regular trading fairs and markets, and many travellers passed through it. John Shakespeare made many other leather goods besides gloves. He became rich and rose rapidly to positions of importance in the town, becoming bailiff (i.e. mayor) in 1569. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, was from a rich and ancient landowning family, so John had made more than one step in the world.
John Shakespeare's son, William, almost certainly attended the local grammar shool, the King's New School. Girls received little education. They had some training at home in needlework, singing and other skills, but boys of prosperous families started school at the age of four or five. A great deal of time was spent studying the 1-atin language. '1'he school day was a demanding one. It started at six in the morning and went on with little break until five in the afternoon.
William Shakespeare probably left school at the age of fifteen or sixteen. He then probably became an apprentice or trainee in his father's shop.
At the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer, who was seven or eight years older than him. Anne gave birth to their first child, Susanna, about six months later. 1,ess than two years after that, in February 1585, the twins, Hamnet (who died at eleven) and Judith (who lived to seventy-seven) were born.
Almost nothing is known about Shakespeare's life between 1585 and the early 1590s, though there are many legends. For example, it is said that he stole deer from a rich man's estate and had to escape to London to avoid being prosecuted. Some people believe that he worked as a schoolmaster, a lawyer's clerk, a soldier, a printer or a seaman. We shall probably never know.
We know for certain that at some point in these years he went to London, and eventually became an actor and playwright. (The 'Wright' in 'playwright' has nothing to do with writing, but means a 'craftsman' or 'maker', as in 'shipwright', or 'wheelwright'.)
By 1594 Shakespeare was one of a group of actors called the Lord Chamberlain's Men. There were several such groups, each depending on a patron, a rich man who supported them with gifts of money. The best groups soon be- came profitable enough for the actors to grow rich, as Shakespeare himself did. By 1598 he was famous for writing tragedy, comedy and history plays, and also poetry.
In 1597 he was rich enough to buy New Place, the second largest house in Stratford, and in the 1600s he bought several more pieces of land around the town. He stayed with the Lord Chamberlain's Men, who were renamed the Kin's Men when James 1 became King in 1603, until he retired from the stage. He did little writing after 1610 and none, as far as we know, after 1613. He spent his last years in Stratford, only occasionally visiting London. He concerned himself with his business affairs, over which he was extremely careful. He remained a countryman, although he was a man of wide experience in the larger world of town and city. His plays reflect both town and country life.
In his will he remembered his family, his old friends from the theatre, and some ordinary people of his native town. He died on 23rd April 1616, and was buried two years later in the church in which, fifty-two years earlier, he had been christened.
Shakespeare's England
The England that Shakespeare knew was very different from the modem industrialised country it is today.
The countryside
Most people lived in small towns or villages, and the great majority were farmers. They kept sheep, chickens and cattle, and grew fruit, vegetables, wheat, oats and barley. They used horses for pulling ploughs and carts. Many farmers, like William Shakespeare's grandfather, Richard, were tenant farmers (that is, they rented land from rich landowners). Far larger areas than today were forest or marshes, and were not used for agriculture or housing.
Most rural people stayed in the same village throughout their whole lives. Transport was very difficult, as there were, of course, no buses, trains or cars, and roads were few and extremely bad. Ale main ways of travelling were on horseback, by horse-drawn carriage, or by boat along rivers and along the coast.
Houses were usually one or two storeys high, built of brick or of wood and mud, with thatched or tiled roofs, like Anne 1-lathaway's cottage. Rich people, however, lived in far bigger houses, and some in huge and beautiful palaces with hundreds of rooms. There were also many beautiful churches.
The towns
Towns were far smaller than they are today, and there were no big industries as we know them. People carried on many different trades and crafts, working at home or in small workshops. Clothmaking, leatherwork (such as Richard Shakespeare was engaged in), pottery, carpentry, baking, brewing, preparing meat, working in iron and steel, gold and silver, were examples of trades carried on in towns and villages. A great deal of very beautiful and skilled work was carried on in architecture, wood-carving, plasterwork for walls and ceilings, painting, embroidery and jewellery.
London
London was the capital city, then as now, but it had many fewer people than nowadays. It was a rich city that traded with many countries. It was also crowded, dangerous and dirty. There were many beautiful buildings, but there was no clean water supply or proper sanitation. Sewage ran into the river Thames. Rich people used to carry bunches of flowers or spiced oranges close to their noses when they walked in the streets because the smell was so bad. Not surprisingly, there were many outbreaks of the plague and other diseases. Most houses were built of wood and were crammed close together. In 1666, fifty years after Shakespeare died, most of London was burnt down in the famous 'Great Fire'.
The social system
There was a great difference between the way ordinary people and the rich and powerful ones lived. Rich landowners could keep hundreds of craftsmen working for them, as well as hundreds of permanent servants. Some- times they also supported drama or music and became 'patrons' to a group of actors or musicians, paying them for their work. The Earl of Southampton was Shakespeare's patron. At the head of all these rich and powerful people was the Queen, Elizabeth 1. From Whitehall in London, she and her chief ministers ruled the country.
Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603. Her position was very "rent from that of the present Queen, Elizabeth II. She had more power than a modern-day President or Prime Minister: she often disagreed with Parliament, and could order the imprisonment or death of anyone, even an important minister or landowner.
Like other rich people of the day, Elizabeth I was a great patroness of poetry, drama, music and all the crafts. She loved beautiful clothes and had thousands of highly decorated dresses stored in her various palaces.
Elizabeth, and her successor James I, who ruled from 1603 to 1625, were, like all the kings and queens before them, different in one very important way from most modern Presidents or Prime Ministers. People believed that they were the representatives of God, and had a divine, or God-given, right to rule, which put them above everyone else in the country. People believed strongly that everyone had a fixed position in life. Anyone, for example, who opposed a king, as Macbeth does when he kills King Duncan, is breaking the proper order of things. Just as all parts of the body should obey the head, so the wife should obey the husband, and the subject the Queen (or King). Highest of all was God, whom everyone had to obey.
Everyone at any level of society was very likely to remain there: a farmer's son was likely to remain a farmer, and, unlike today, could not easily rise to a position of power through education. William Shakespeare's father, John, was an example of a farmer's son who was quite successful in his own town, but most really important people of Shakespeare's day were from a few powerful old families.
Shakespeare's plays reflect the big differences between the classes of people. His heroes and heroines are usually kings, queens or other aristocrats - rich and powerful people. Often such people came to watch his plays so they were, of course, interested. Even the ordinary men and women in the audience usually expected to see plays about exceptional or famous people, not about ordinary people like themselves. Shakespeare's plays are mostly written in poetry, but his poor people and servants usually speak in prose (that is, ordinary, non-poetic language). Most of the humorous scenes in Shakespeare deal with ordinary people rather than aristocrats, so that we laugh at 'lower-class' people more often than at 'upper-class' ones.
Religion
England had been Catholic until the middle of the sixteenth century when Henry VII quarrelled with the Pope and broke away from the Church of Rome. Elizabeth 1 enforced Protestant Christianity by law. Those not attending church regularly were punished. Catholics were increasingly oppressed.
For the first time, the Bible was widely available in English, and the large numbers of illiterate people could at least hear it read. Shakespeare's work uses the rhythms and images of the Bible, though he does not often mention characters or stories by name.
The Renaissance
The Renaissance (rebirth of learning) began in Italy in the fourteenth century and spread throughout Europe. There was new interest in the ancient Greek and Roman classics, and also new forms of art, architecture, music and literature. It was a period of change, questioning and vitality. People no longer believed everything they were told, but tried to find things out for themselves. Shakespeare's plays are part of this 'rebirth'.
Poetry and drama
In England it was above all an age of great poetry and drama. Besides Shakespeare himself, there were Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Chapmen, Johnson, and many other important writers. The drama especially flowered as never be- fore in England. Elizabethan music is also still performed and enjoyed in many places today.
Science, magic and medicine
Scientific and medical knowledge was progressing very fast in Shakespeare's day, but there was still a great deal of ignorance. People knew very little about health care, and did not understand that dirt breeds disease. William Shakespeare was one of eight children, but three of them died in childhood. Only he and one sister lived to over fifty. This was typical for that period. 'Apothecaries', or chemists, like the one in Romeo and Juliet, knew a lot about medicinal herbs, but there were many mistaken beliefs. People believed that a sick person could be cured by having the bad blood taken out of him: leeches, which look rather like small worms, were put on sick people's skin to suck out the 'bad blood'. People often died of the medicine they were given rather than of the disease!
People thought that everything was made up of four 'elements', Air, Water, Earth and Fire. In the human body there were four liquids, the 'humours', which corresponded to the elements and affected a person's behaviour. These were melancholy (bitter black bile from the liver) which made one sad; blood, which made one courageous; choler (bitter yellow bile from the liver) which made one angry; and phlegm (the mucous from one's nose, etc) which made one quiet and calm.
The ideal person was supposed to be a good mixture between the humours or elements. For example, in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, (Act Five, scene 5), Brutus is described as having 'The elements/So mixed in him, that nature might stand up/And say to all the world, this was a man.'
Many people believed in witches, who co-operated with the devil and could harm others by their strange prayers and medicines; they could see into the future, like the three witches in Macbeth. Many harmless people, especially weak-minded old women, were accused of being witches, and were burnt to death.
Astrology and astronomy
Many people believed in astrology, a study of the stars and planets which, they thought, affected people's lives. The sun, the planets and some of the stars seem to move through the twelve groups of stars we call the Zodiac. Ale position of these stars when a person is born is supposed to affect his character and the events of his life. For example, the unlucky Romeo and Juliet are called 'star-crossed lovers'. Because the stars were in a certain unfavourable position, Romeo and Juliet had to die. In other words, people cannot control their own lives, but are controlled by the stars. '1'he horoscopes, or star signs, in today's newspapers and magazines are based on a belief in astrology.
Until the late seventeenth century, people thought that the earth was the centre of the universe, with moon, sun and stars revolving around it. Shakespeare probably believed this. Astronomy, the science of studying the planets and stars, was progressing very fast but, as late as 1616, the Italian astronomer Galileo got into trouble with the Catholic Church for supporting the view that the earth went round the sun.
Exploration
In general, however, people in Western Europe were finding out more and more about the world. Explorers sailed to Africa, Asia and America in their small (by our standards) wooden sailing boats, bringing back information and riches to their countries. Scientists were looking at the sky through the telescope (which was invented in 160
, and performing many experiments to find out about the body, about medicine, and about the world around them.
Elizabethan drama
Today's theatres are comfortable buildings with seats for all the audience, and powerful electric lighting to illuminate the actors performing on stage. Often there is complicated scenery made of wood or cloth, representing walls, trees and so on, to give the impression of indoor or outdoor scenes.
In Shakespeare's day, theatres were Very different. The central part had no roof. As there was no electricity to light the theatres they had to depend on sun- light. The central, open-air part contained the stage and a yard. Many of the audience stood in the yard in front of the stage. The stage was raised so that everyone could see. Those who could pay higher prices sat on seats arranged in two or three storeys in a rough circle around the yard, rather as in a very small football stadium. Sometimes they even sat on the stage! The top storey of seats had a roof, and there was also an extra storey, the 'heavens', above the back of the stage, which contained machinery (for example, for lowering and lifting actors playing gods). At the back of the stage were large double doors or curtains leading to a dressing room for the actors. The space behind was also used for some inside scenes, for example, Juliet's tomb in Romeo and Juliet. Actors also went in and out (entered and exited) through these doors. There were trapdoors going down through the stage, for use as tombs, prisons or even hell. Unlike today's theatres, there was no scenery, so actors in Shakespeare's time could move very freely. Costumes were often rich and impressive, but not historically accurate. For example, the Romans in Julius Caesar would have been dressed more or less as Elizabethan gentlemen. Without costumes or scenery, plays had to rely on words to show the audience where and when the story was taking place. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the play opens with lines which 'set the scene':
'Two households, both alike in dignity In fair Verona, where we lay our scene ...
(Act One, scene 1)
The audience had to use their imaginations far more than we do in the cinema or theatre today, and especially in one matter: there were no actresses! The theatre was not considered a respectable place for women to work, so all the women's parts were taken by young boys whose voices had not yet broken.
The origins of western European theatre
The western European tradition of theatre began in Greece in the fifth century BC. Tragedies and comedies were performed in huge open-air theatres for thousands of people. The tragedies usually dealt with traditional heroes of the past and with the gods.
The tradition of Greek theatre continued into Roman times, and famous Latin plays were written until about the first century AD. These Greek and Latin plays continued to be read, first in the original languages, and later in translation. Shakespeare would have known many of their stories and characters. Theseus and Hippolyta, Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hecuba and Helen, Acneas and Dido in Hamlet, for example, are all characters from Latin and Greek poetry and drama. Juno, Jupiter, Mars and Venus are some of the many gods that the Greeks and Romans believed in before the introduction of Christianity. These gods are often mentioned in Shakespeare's plays.
There was another tradition of drama in Western Europe. 'Mystery' plays based on Bible stories were performed on religious holidays in churches and market places. These were lively, often exciting and humorous plays, and they may well have helped to fire Shakespeare's imagination and point him towards his career as a playwright. Shakespeare, and the other playwrights of his time, also took stories from English and European history, and from novels, poems and plays by earlier writers.
In the sixteenth century, plays were first performed in the yards of inns (hotels) with a stage set up against a wall. Groups of actors used to travel round the country performing plays in inns and the houses of rich people.
The first building specially designed as a theatre was opened in London in 1576. The Globe Theatre was opened in 1599. Shakespeare's plays were performed here and in other London theatres such as the Swan and the Blackfriars Theatre.
MACBETH
Historical and theatrical background
Macbeth was written early in 1606, and the earliest recorded performance was in 1611 at the Globe Theatre, London. It is likely, however, that the play had been performed earlier than this.
It is one of the shortest of Shakespeare's plays. From the nineteenth century onwards, Macbeth has often been performed by companies as a special attraction when business was going badly. This is one of the reasons why actors consider it bad luck to quote from the play, or to mention it by name, especially inside the theatre - they always refer to it as 'the Scottish play'!
Shakespeare took the story from the Chronicles (1577), a history written mainly by Raphael Holinshed and known by his name, 'Holinshed'. He in turn had taken the story from the work of a Scottish historian called Hector Boyce, writing about fifty years earlier. Though Shakespeare develops the story in his own way, and invents a good deal, the central characters and events were closely based on actual history. King James I of England (who was also King James VI of Scotland), for example, was proud to count both Banquo and King Duncan among his ancestors.
The central theme of the play is the destruction caused when an ambitious man usurps power and undermines social and political order. In the process, moral and spiritual order are also seriously attacked, but in the end order is restored under a wise, strong and legitimate king. It is likely that Shakespeare wrote the play partly as a compliment to King James and as a celebration of that ordered rule which had very nearly been destroyed by the Gunpowder Plot.
Two difficulties which modem audiences sometimes have with this play concern the witches and the ghosts or apparitions, and these need some comment. In the case of the ghost of Banquo and the apparitions apparently conjured up by the witches, our difficulty need not be so great - if we do not believe in ghosts or visions, we can respond to these things as if they were hallucinations or delusions on Macbeth's part, caused by a guilty conscience or a vivid imagination. There are, however, people in the West who do believe in such phenomena, or who think that there might possibly be such things.
As far as witches are concerned, the position is more complicated. Belief in witchcraft is widely distributed in human society, past and present. Records of such beliefs go back to probably the prehistoric period, though some people (e.g. the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert) do not have a belief in witch- craft. Generally witches are thought to be strange, abnormal people who use what they believe to be supernatural means in order to achieve some harmful, evil ends. Some societies, however, recognise 'white' witchcraft, the use of such powers for beneficial aims such as curing the sick. Witches are often blamed as the cause of things going wrong - e.g. for illnesses or untimely deaths, or the failure of crops.
Some people in Shakespeare's time thought that the beliefs about witches were simply superstitions. Others, like King James I himself, at first doubted but later appeared to be convinced that witches did have extraordinary and evil powers. He was very interested in the subject and wrote a book on it called Demonology (1597; Published in England 1603). Most people in those days, however, did believe in the evil power of witches, who were thought to be earthly representatives of the Prince of Evil. An Act of Parliament of 1604 made the practice of witchcraft an offence punishable by death. The campaign against witches was waged relentlessly, by Catholics and by Protestants, for centuries. It was not until the more secular philosophy of the modem world began to emerge from the late seventeenth century onwards that the European witch-craze died down. Many innocent women must have been killed over the centuries, however. There are still reports of traditional witchcraft practices and beliefs in Western societies in recent years.
Whatever we think of witchcraft, one thing is clear about Macbeth: Shakespeare does not put the blame for what happens on the witches. They have a keen interest and delight in encouraging human evil, but Shakespeare shows that evil is really in certain human beings themselves. Supernatural powers and their human agents can encourage this human evil to flourish, but they do not create it. The witches foretell the future - Macbeth, briefly, makes it.
Language and structure
Shakespeare telescopes the events of the play into what seems a short space of time, and the play has a very tight structure. We see Macbeth at the beginning and end of the play as a soldier - at the beginning he is a hero, loyal to the rightful king, and part of a system of order. At the end, however, he is a hated tyrant who has killed the rightful king, dispossessed his heir, killed others who would be in his way, and reduced the ordered kingdom to terror and anarchy. He is also, at the end, no longer part of a coherent society, but instead he is alone.
The first movement of the play is triggered by the prophecies of the witches - that Macbeth will be Thane of Glamis (as he is), Thane of Cawdor, and king hereafter, and that Banquo, though not becoming king himself, will be father to a line of longs. The prophecies add to what Macbeth has evidently already been thinking and help to impel him to the various actions of killing the king and having Banquo murdered. The second meeting with the witches also contains three prophecies - that Macbeth is to beware Macduff; that he should not fear anyone born of woman; and that he would be safe until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane. His reactions to the second set of prophecies lead to his downfall and death.
The witch scenes are therefore important in relating the two movements of the play, but the turning point of the plot is the banquet scene. Macbeth here briefly is able to act the part of king. The murder of Banquo should have made him secure, but ironically it is this which leads him to give himself away. Though Macbeth is able to gain control of himself eventually, it is too late, and though Lady Macbeth is still strong and determined, it is for the last time. There can be no looking back for him, and he determines that he has no choice but to go on killing.
It has been said that the play has some of the symbolic force of a morality play, and this is true. Yet the characters are not personifications of abstract virtues or vices, but living human beings, and sometimes very complex ones. Instead the symbolic force springs from the formal structure - what we have is a tight pattern of cause and effect, with every action leading to consequences which in turn have further results. The structure gives a sense of inevitability to the play, with nothing irrelevant and yet everything seeming natural in its place. Everything springs from the character of Macbeth himself and its impact, in action, upon those around him. The short scenes which occur from time to time, e.g. between Ross and the Old Man, or between the doctor and the gentlewoman, serve as a commentary on what has been happening, and enable us to see the events as part of a universal context.
The language of the play is particularly memorable for several related groups of images which powerfully help to achieve the presentation of the themes of the play. Especially noticeable are the following: images of clothing, particularly pointing to the difference between external appearance and the reality beneath, and sometimes implying that the clothes are too big for the wearer; images of bloodshed, and the attempts to wash away blood; images of sleep and sleeplessness; images of food and of banquets; images of disorder in the worlds of animals; images of health and disease.
The themes
The major themes of Macbeth are as follows: the sanctity of rightful kingship; the destructive nature of usurpation; the inwardly as well as outwardly destructive nature of evil (i.e. that it destroys the evildoer as well as his victims); the correspondence between order and disorder in the state, in nature, and in individuals; the justifiable killing of the usurper.
Summary of the plot
Macbeth and Banquo are generals in the army of Duncan, King of Scotland. They have just defeated an army of Norwegian invaders and Scottish rebels. They meet three witches, who greet Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor and 'king hereafter'. The witches tell Banquo that although he will not be king himself, he will be the father of many kings. The witches vanish, and news comes that Duncan has made Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, in place of the former Thane, who has proved to be a traitor.
Macbeth writes to tell Lady Macbeth of his adventures and the witches' prophecies about his future, and about the new title Duncan has given him. She starts to plan Duncan's death.
Duncan decides to spend the night at Macbeth's castle. Macbeth's own ambition, and the fact that the witches' prophecy came true, lead him to give in to his wife's persuasion and to kill the sleeping king. The king's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, are suspected, and run away, and Macbeth is crowned king.
Macbeth determines to defeat the witches' prophecy concerning Banquo's children. He therefore tries to have Banquo and his son Fleance killed while they are out riding, but Fleance escapes.
The ghost of the murdered Banquo appears at Macbeth's banquet to haunt him, and he decides to consult the witches again. They tell him to beware of Macduff, Thane of Fife; that no one born of woman can harm him; and that he will never be defeated until Birnam Forest moves to Dunsinane. He therefore believes that fate is on his side. On learning that Macduff has gone to England, to raise an army to come back and fight him, Macbeth kills Lady Macduff and her children. Lady Macbeth goes mad and dies, and Macbeth is alone. The attacking army led by Malcolm and Macduff cut branches from the trees in Birnam Wood and use them as camouflage as they walk to Dunsinane - so that it looks as though the wood itself is moving, as the prophecy foretold. Macbeth goes to fight Macduff, who reveals that he was not born in the normal way but by Caesarean section (i.e. 'untimely ripped' from the womb) - thus the last prophecy comes true. Macduff kills Macbeth and Malcolm becomes King of Scotland.
The main characters
Macbeth
(a) The historical Macbeth
The historical Macbeth was the ruler of Moray and Ross, and became King of Scotland when he murdered King Duncan in 1040. His only claim to the throne was through his wife, who was called Gruach. He -
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Shakespeare's life
Shakespeare's plays are read and performed all over the world. Yet they were written by an ordinary Englishman almost four hundred years ago. Ben Johnson, a fellow writer of Shakespeare, said that he was not for any one century, but for all time. One might add that he was for all places and all races.
We do not know many firm facts about most ordinary people of William Shakespeare's time, but we do know quite a lot about him. Several documents, or papers, about him survive. They include baptismal and burial records, business and theatre papers, and his Will. We also know a great deal about life in the sixteenth century. From all this we can build up a picture of Shakespeare's life.
Shakespeare was born about the 23rd April 1564, in the family home at Henley Street, in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small town in England about 100 km from London, the capital city. He was christened on that day in Holy Trinity church in Stratford. He was the third of the eight children, four boys and four girls, of John and Mary Shakespeare.
John's father, Richard, had been a farmer in a village a few miles from Stratford. John, like others of his generation, rejected the farming life in favour of learning a profitable trade. He became a glove-maker in Stratford, which was quickly becoming bigger and richer.
Stratford was a flourishing market town of about 1400 people, with many trades, the chief of which was brewing beer. It had regular trading fairs and markets, and many travellers passed through it. John Shakespeare made many other leather goods besides gloves. He became rich and rose rapidly to positions of importance in the town, becoming bailiff (i.e. mayor) in 1569. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, was from a rich and ancient landowning family, so John had made more than one step in the world.
John Shakespeare's son, William, almost certainly attended the local grammar shool, the King's New School. Girls received little education. They had some training at home in needlework, singing and other skills, but boys of prosperous families started school at the age of four or five. A great deal of time was spent studying the 1-atin language. '1'he school day was a demanding one. It started at six in the morning and went on with little break until five in the afternoon.
William Shakespeare probably left school at the age of fifteen or sixteen. He then probably became an apprentice or trainee in his father's shop.
At the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer, who was seven or eight years older than him. Anne gave birth to their first child, Susanna, about six months later. 1,ess than two years after that, in February 1585, the twins, Hamnet (who died at eleven) and Judith (who lived to seventy-seven) were born.
Almost nothing is known about Shakespeare's life between 1585 and the early 1590s, though there are many legends. For example, it is said that he stole deer from a rich man's estate and had to escape to London to avoid being prosecuted. Some people believe that he worked as a schoolmaster, a lawyer's clerk, a soldier, a printer or a seaman. We shall probably never know.
We know for certain that at some point in these years he went to London, and eventually became an actor and playwright. (The 'Wright' in 'playwright' has nothing to do with writing, but means a 'craftsman' or 'maker', as in 'shipwright', or 'wheelwright'.)
By 1594 Shakespeare was one of a group of actors called the Lord Chamberlain's Men. There were several such groups, each depending on a patron, a rich man who supported them with gifts of money. The best groups soon be- came profitable enough for the actors to grow rich, as Shakespeare himself did. By 1598 he was famous for writing tragedy, comedy and history plays, and also poetry.
In 1597 he was rich enough to buy New Place, the second largest house in Stratford, and in the 1600s he bought several more pieces of land around the town. He stayed with the Lord Chamberlain's Men, who were renamed the Kin's Men when James 1 became King in 1603, until he retired from the stage. He did little writing after 1610 and none, as far as we know, after 1613. He spent his last years in Stratford, only occasionally visiting London. He concerned himself with his business affairs, over which he was extremely careful. He remained a countryman, although he was a man of wide experience in the larger world of town and city. His plays reflect both town and country life.
In his will he remembered his family, his old friends from the theatre, and some ordinary people of his native town. He died on 23rd April 1616, and was buried two years later in the church in which, fifty-two years earlier, he had been christened.
Shakespeare's England
The England that Shakespeare knew was very different from the modem industrialised country it is today.
The countryside
Most people lived in small towns or villages, and the great majority were farmers. They kept sheep, chickens and cattle, and grew fruit, vegetables, wheat, oats and barley. They used horses for pulling ploughs and carts. Many farmers, like William Shakespeare's grandfather, Richard, were tenant farmers (that is, they rented land from rich landowners). Far larger areas than today were forest or marshes, and were not used for agriculture or housing.
Most rural people stayed in the same village throughout their whole lives. Transport was very difficult, as there were, of course, no buses, trains or cars, and roads were few and extremely bad. Ale main ways of travelling were on horseback, by horse-drawn carriage, or by boat along rivers and along the coast.
Houses were usually one or two storeys high, built of brick or of wood and mud, with thatched or tiled roofs, like Anne 1-lathaway's cottage. Rich people, however, lived in far bigger houses, and some in huge and beautiful palaces with hundreds of rooms. There were also many beautiful churches.
The towns
Towns were far smaller than they are today, and there were no big industries as we know them. People carried on many different trades and crafts, working at home or in small workshops. Clothmaking, leatherwork (such as Richard Shakespeare was engaged in), pottery, carpentry, baking, brewing, preparing meat, working in iron and steel, gold and silver, were examples of trades carried on in towns and villages. A great deal of very beautiful and skilled work was carried on in architecture, wood-carving, plasterwork for walls and ceilings, painting, embroidery and jewellery.
London
London was the capital city, then as now, but it had many fewer people than nowadays. It was a rich city that traded with many countries. It was also crowded, dangerous and dirty. There were many beautiful buildings, but there was no clean water supply or proper sanitation. Sewage ran into the river Thames. Rich people used to carry bunches of flowers or spiced oranges close to their noses when they walked in the streets because the smell was so bad. Not surprisingly, there were many outbreaks of the plague and other diseases. Most houses were built of wood and were crammed close together. In 1666, fifty years after Shakespeare died, most of London was burnt down in the famous 'Great Fire'.
The social system
There was a great difference between the way ordinary people and the rich and powerful ones lived. Rich landowners could keep hundreds of craftsmen working for them, as well as hundreds of permanent servants. Some- times they also supported drama or music and became 'patrons' to a group of actors or musicians, paying them for their work. The Earl of Southampton was Shakespeare's patron. At the head of all these rich and powerful people was the Queen, Elizabeth 1. From Whitehall in London, she and her chief ministers ruled the country.
Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603. Her position was very "rent from that of the present Queen, Elizabeth II. She had more power than a modern-day President or Prime Minister: she often disagreed with Parliament, and could order the imprisonment or death of anyone, even an important minister or landowner.
Like other rich people of the day, Elizabeth I was a great patroness of poetry, drama, music and all the crafts. She loved beautiful clothes and had thousands of highly decorated dresses stored in her various palaces.
Elizabeth, and her successor James I, who ruled from 1603 to 1625, were, like all the kings and queens before them, different in one very important way from most modern Presidents or Prime Ministers. People believed that they were the representatives of God, and had a divine, or God-given, right to rule, which put them above everyone else in the country. People believed strongly that everyone had a fixed position in life. Anyone, for example, who opposed a king, as Macbeth does when he kills King Duncan, is breaking the proper order of things. Just as all parts of the body should obey the head, so the wife should obey the husband, and the subject the Queen (or King). Highest of all was God, whom everyone had to obey.
Everyone at any level of society was very likely to remain there: a farmer's son was likely to remain a farmer, and, unlike today, could not easily rise to a position of power through education. William Shakespeare's father, John, was an example of a farmer's son who was quite successful in his own town, but most really important people of Shakespeare's day were from a few powerful old families.
Shakespeare's plays reflect the big differences between the classes of people. His heroes and heroines are usually kings, queens or other aristocrats - rich and powerful people. Often such people came to watch his plays so they were, of course, interested. Even the ordinary men and women in the audience usually expected to see plays about exceptional or famous people, not about ordinary people like themselves. Shakespeare's plays are mostly written in poetry, but his poor people and servants usually speak in prose (that is, ordinary, non-poetic language). Most of the humorous scenes in Shakespeare deal with ordinary people rather than aristocrats, so that we laugh at 'lower-class' people more often than at 'upper-class' ones.
Religion
England had been Catholic until the middle of the sixteenth century when Henry VII quarrelled with the Pope and broke away from the Church of Rome. Elizabeth 1 enforced Protestant Christianity by law. Those not attending church regularly were punished. Catholics were increasingly oppressed.
For the first time, the Bible was widely available in English, and the large numbers of illiterate people could at least hear it read. Shakespeare's work uses the rhythms and images of the Bible, though he does not often mention characters or stories by name.
The Renaissance
The Renaissance (rebirth of learning) began in Italy in the fourteenth century and spread throughout Europe. There was new interest in the ancient Greek and Roman classics, and also new forms of art, architecture, music and literature. It was a period of change, questioning and vitality. People no longer believed everything they were told, but tried to find things out for themselves. Shakespeare's plays are part of this 'rebirth'.
Poetry and drama
In England it was above all an age of great poetry and drama. Besides Shakespeare himself, there were Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Chapmen, Johnson, and many other important writers. The drama especially flowered as never be- fore in England. Elizabethan music is also still performed and enjoyed in many places today.
Science, magic and medicine
Scientific and medical knowledge was progressing very fast in Shakespeare's day, but there was still a great deal of ignorance. People knew very little about health care, and did not understand that dirt breeds disease. William Shakespeare was one of eight children, but three of them died in childhood. Only he and one sister lived to over fifty. This was typical for that period. 'Apothecaries', or chemists, like the one in Romeo and Juliet, knew a lot about medicinal herbs, but there were many mistaken beliefs. People believed that a sick person could be cured by having the bad blood taken out of him: leeches, which look rather like small worms, were put on sick people's skin to suck out the 'bad blood'. People often died of the medicine they were given rather than of the disease!
People thought that everything was made up of four 'elements', Air, Water, Earth and Fire. In the human body there were four liquids, the 'humours', which corresponded to the elements and affected a person's behaviour. These were melancholy (bitter black bile from the liver) which made one sad; blood, which made one courageous; choler (bitter yellow bile from the liver) which made one angry; and phlegm (the mucous from one's nose, etc) which made one quiet and calm.
The ideal person was supposed to be a good mixture between the humours or elements. For example, in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, (Act Five, scene 5), Brutus is described as having 'The elements/So mixed in him, that nature might stand up/And say to all the world, this was a man.'
Many people believed in witches, who co-operated with the devil and could harm others by their strange prayers and medicines; they could see into the future, like the three witches in Macbeth. Many harmless people, especially weak-minded old women, were accused of being witches, and were burnt to death.
Astrology and astronomy
Many people believed in astrology, a study of the stars and planets which, they thought, affected people's lives. The sun, the planets and some of the stars seem to move through the twelve groups of stars we call the Zodiac. Ale position of these stars when a person is born is supposed to affect his character and the events of his life. For example, the unlucky Romeo and Juliet are called 'star-crossed lovers'. Because the stars were in a certain unfavourable position, Romeo and Juliet had to die. In other words, people cannot control their own lives, but are controlled by the stars. '1'he horoscopes, or star signs, in today's newspapers and magazines are based on a belief in astrology.
Until the late seventeenth century, people thought that the earth was the centre of the universe, with moon, sun and stars revolving around it. Shakespeare probably believed this. Astronomy, the science of studying the planets and stars, was progressing very fast but, as late as 1616, the Italian astronomer Galileo got into trouble with the Catholic Church for supporting the view that the earth went round the sun.
Exploration
In general, however, people in Western Europe were finding out more and more about the world. Explorers sailed to Africa, Asia and America in their small (by our standards) wooden sailing boats, bringing back information and riches to their countries. Scientists were looking at the sky through the telescope (which was invented in 160, and performing many experiments to find out about the body, about medicine, and about the world around them.
Elizabethan drama
Today's theatres are comfortable buildings with seats for all the audience, and powerful electric lighting to illuminate the actors performing on stage. Often there is complicated scenery made of wood or cloth, representing walls, trees and so on, to give the impression of indoor or outdoor scenes.
In Shakespeare's day, theatres were Very different. The central part had no roof. As there was no electricity to light the theatres they had to depend on sun- light. The central, open-air part contained the stage and a yard. Many of the audience stood in the yard in front of the stage. The stage was raised so that everyone could see. Those who could pay higher prices sat on seats arranged in two or three storeys in a rough circle around the yard, rather as in a very small football stadium. Sometimes they even sat on the stage! The top storey of seats had a roof, and there was also an extra storey, the 'heavens', above the back of the stage, which contained machinery (for example, for lowering and lifting actors playing gods). At the back of the stage were large double doors or curtains leading to a dressing room for the actors. The space behind was also used for some inside scenes, for example, Juliet's tomb in Romeo and Juliet. Actors also went in and out (entered and exited) through these doors. There were trapdoors going down through the stage, for use as tombs, prisons or even hell. Unlike today's theatres, there was no scenery, so actors in Shakespeare's time could move very freely. Costumes were often rich and impressive, but not historically accurate. For example, the Romans in Julius Caesar would have been dressed more or less as Elizabethan gentlemen. Without costumes or scenery, plays had to rely on words to show the audience where and when the story was taking place. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the play opens with lines which 'set the scene':
'Two households, both alike in dignity In fair Verona, where we lay our scene ...
(Act One, scene 1)
The audience had to use their imaginations far more than we do in the cinema or theatre today, and especially in one matter: there were no actresses! The theatre was not considered a respectable place for women to work, so all the women's parts were taken by young boys whose voices had not yet broken.
The origins of western European theatre
The western European tradition of theatre began in Greece in the fifth century BC. Tragedies and comedies were performed in huge open-air theatres for thousands of people. The tragedies usually dealt with traditional heroes of the past and with the gods.
The tradition of Greek theatre continued into Roman times, and famous Latin plays were written until about the first century AD. These Greek and Latin plays continued to be read, first in the original languages, and later in translation. Shakespeare would have known many of their stories and characters. Theseus and Hippolyta, Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hecuba and Helen, Acneas and Dido in Hamlet, for example, are all characters from Latin and Greek poetry and drama. Juno, Jupiter, Mars and Venus are some of the many gods that the Greeks and Romans believed in before the introduction of Christianity. These gods are often mentioned in Shakespeare's plays.
There was another tradition of drama in Western Europe. 'Mystery' plays based on Bible stories were performed on religious holidays in churches and market places. These were lively, often exciting and humorous plays, and they may well have helped to fire Shakespeare's imagination and point him towards his career as a playwright. Shakespeare, and the other playwrights of his time, also took stories from English and European history, and from novels, poems and plays by earlier writers.
In the sixteenth century, plays were first performed in the yards of inns (hotels) with a stage set up against a wall. Groups of actors used to travel round the country performing plays in inns and the houses of rich people.
The first building specially designed as a theatre was opened in London in 1576. The Globe Theatre was opened in 1599. Shakespeare's plays were performed here and in other London theatres such as the Swan and the Blackfriars Theatre.
MACBETH
Historical and theatrical background
Macbeth was written early in 1606, and the earliest recorded performance was in 1611 at the Globe Theatre, London. It is likely, however, that the play had been performed earlier than this.
It is one of the shortest of Shakespeare's plays. From the nineteenth century onwards, Macbeth has often been performed by companies as a special attraction when business was going badly. This is one of the reasons why actors consider it bad luck to quote from the play, or to mention it by name, especially inside the theatre - they always refer to it as 'the Scottish play'!
Shakespeare took the story from the Chronicles (1577), a history written mainly by Raphael Holinshed and known by his name, 'Holinshed'. He in turn had taken the story from the work of a Scottish historian called Hector Boyce, writing about fifty years earlier. Though Shakespeare develops the story in his own way, and invents a good deal, the central characters and events were closely based on actual history. King James I of England (who was also King James VI of Scotland), for example, was proud to count both Banquo and King Duncan among his ancestors.
The central theme of the play is the destruction caused when an ambitious man usurps power and undermines social and political order. In the process, moral and spiritual order are also seriously attacked, but in the end order is restored under a wise, strong and legitimate king. It is likely that Shakespeare wrote the play partly as a compliment to King James and as a celebration of that ordered rule which had very nearly been destroyed by the Gunpowder Plot.
Two difficulties which modem audiences sometimes have with this play concern the witches and the ghosts or apparitions, and these need some comment. In the case of the ghost of Banquo and the apparitions apparently conjured up by the witches, our difficulty need not be so great - if we do not believe in ghosts or visions, we can respond to these things as if they were hallucinations or delusions on Macbeth's part, caused by a guilty conscience or a vivid imagination. There are, however, people in the West who do believe in such phenomena, or who think that there might possibly be such things.
As far as witches are concerned, the position is more complicated. Belief in witchcraft is widely distributed in human society, past and present. Records of such beliefs go back to probably the prehistoric period, though some people (e.g. the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert) do not have a belief in witch- craft. Generally witches are thought to be strange, abnormal people who use what they believe to be supernatural means in order to achieve some harmful, evil ends. Some societies, however, recognise 'white' witchcraft, the use of such powers for beneficial aims such as curing the sick. Witches are often blamed as the cause of things going wrong - e.g. for illnesses or untimely deaths, or the failure of crops.
Some people in Shakespeare's time thought that the beliefs about witches were simply superstitions. Others, like King James I himself, at first doubted but later appeared to be convinced that witches did have extraordinary and evil powers. He was very interested in the subject and wrote a book on it called Demonology (1597; Published in England 1603). Most people in those days, however, did believe in the evil power of witches, who were thought to be earthly representatives of the Prince of Evil. An Act of Parliament of 1604 made the practice of witchcraft an offence punishable by death. The campaign against witches was waged relentlessly, by Catholics and by Protestants, for centuries. It was not until the more secular philosophy of the modem world began to emerge from the late seventeenth century onwards that the European witch-craze died down. Many innocent women must have been killed over the centuries, however. There are still reports of traditional witchcraft practices and beliefs in Western societies in recent years.
Whatever we think of witchcraft, one thing is clear about Macbeth: Shakespeare does not put the blame for what happens on the witches. They have a keen interest and delight in encouraging human evil, but Shakespeare shows that evil is really in certain human beings themselves. Supernatural powers and their human agents can encourage this human evil to flourish, but they do not create it. The witches foretell the future - Macbeth, briefly, makes it.
Language and structure
Shakespeare telescopes the events of the play into what seems a short space of time, and the play has a very tight structure. We see Macbeth at the beginning and end of the play as a soldier - at the beginning he is a hero, loyal to the rightful king, and part of a system of order. At the end, however, he is a hated tyrant who has killed the rightful king, dispossessed his heir, killed others who would be in his way, and reduced the ordered kingdom to terror and anarchy. He is also, at the end, no longer part of a coherent society, but instead he is alone.
The first movement of the play is triggered by the prophecies of the witches - that Macbeth will be Thane of Glamis (as he is), Thane of Cawdor, and king hereafter, and that Banquo, though not becoming king himself, will be father to a line of longs. The prophecies add to what Macbeth has evidently already been thinking and help to impel him to the various actions of killing the king and having Banquo murdered. The second meeting with the witches also contains three prophecies - that Macbeth is to beware Macduff; that he should not fear anyone born of woman; and that he would be safe until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane. His reactions to the second set of prophecies lead to his downfall and death.
The witch scenes are therefore important in relating the two movements of the play, but the turning point of the plot is the banquet scene. Macbeth here briefly is able to act the part of king. The murder of Banquo should have made him secure, but ironically it is this which leads him to give himself away. Though Macbeth is able to gain control of himself eventually, it is too late, and though Lady Macbeth is still strong and determined, it is for the last time. There can be no looking back for him, and he determines that he has no choice but to go on killing.
It has been said that the play has some of the symbolic force of a morality play, and this is true. Yet the characters are not personifications of abstract virtues or vices, but living human beings, and sometimes very complex ones. Instead the symbolic force springs from the formal structure - what we have is a tight pattern of cause and effect, with every action leading to consequences which in turn have further results. The structure gives a sense of inevitability to the play, with nothing irrelevant and yet everything seeming natural in its place. Everything springs from the character of Macbeth himself and its impact, in action, upon those around him. The short scenes which occur from time to time, e.g. between Ross and the Old Man, or between the doctor and the gentlewoman, serve as a commentary on what has been happening, and enable us to see the events as part of a universal context.
The language of the play is particularly memorable for several related groups of images which powerfully help to achieve the presentation of the themes of the play. Especially noticeable are the following: images of clothing, particularly pointing to the difference between external appearance and the reality beneath, and sometimes implying that the clothes are too big for the wearer; images of bloodshed, and the attempts to wash away blood; images of sleep and sleeplessness; images of food and of banquets; images of disorder in the worlds of animals; images of health and disease.
The themes
The major themes of Macbeth are as follows: the sanctity of rightful kingship; the destructive nature of usurpation; the inwardly as well as outwardly destructive nature of evil (i.e. that it destroys the evildoer as well as his victims); the correspondence between order and disorder in the state, in nature, and in individuals; the justifiable killing of the usurper.
Summary of the plot
Macbeth and Banquo are generals in the army of Duncan, King of Scotland. They have just defeated an army of Norwegian invaders and Scottish rebels. They meet three witches, who greet Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor and 'king hereafter'. The witches tell Banquo that although he will not be king himself, he will be the father of many kings. The witches vanish, and news comes that Duncan has made Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, in place of the former Thane, who has proved to be a traitor.
Macbeth writes to tell Lady Macbeth of his adventures and the witches' prophecies about his future, and about the new title Duncan has given him. She starts to plan Duncan's death.
Duncan decides to spend the night at Macbeth's castle. Macbeth's own ambition, and the fact that the witches' prophecy came true, lead him to give in to his wife's persuasion and to kill the sleeping king. The king's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, are suspected, and run away, and Macbeth is crowned king.
Macbeth determines to defeat the witches' prophecy concerning Banquo's children. He therefore tries to have Banquo and his son Fleance killed while they are out riding, but Fleance escapes.
The ghost of the murdered Banquo appears at Macbeth's banquet to haunt him, and he decides to consult the witches again. They tell him to beware of Macduff, Thane of Fife; that no one born of woman can harm him; and that he will never be defeated until Birnam Forest moves to Dunsinane. He therefore believes that fate is on his side. On learning that Macduff has gone to England, to raise an army to come back and fight him, Macbeth kills Lady Macduff and her children. Lady Macbeth goes mad and dies, and Macbeth is alone. The attacking army led by Malcolm and Macduff cut branches from the trees in Birnam Wood and use them as camouflage as they walk to Dunsinane - so that it looks as though the wood itself is moving, as the prophecy foretold. Macbeth goes to fight Macduff, who reveals that he was not born in the normal way but by Caesarean section (i.e. 'untimely ripped' from the womb) - thus the last prophecy comes true. Macduff kills Macbeth and Malcolm becomes King of Scotland.
The main characters
Macbeth
(a) The historical Macbeth
The historical Macbeth was the ruler of Moray and Ross, and became King of Scotland when he murdered King Duncan in 1040. His only claim to the throne was through his wife, who was called Gruach. He -
and again..........
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Shakespeare's life
Shakespeare's plays are read and performed all over the world. Yet they were written by an ordinary Englishman almost four hundred years ago. Ben Johnson, a fellow writer of Shakespeare, said that he was not for any one century, but for all time. One might add that he was for all places and all races.
We do not know many firm facts about most ordinary people of William Shakespeare's time, but we do know quite a lot about him. Several documents, or papers, about him survive. They include baptismal and burial records, business and theatre papers, and his Will. We also know a great deal about life in the sixteenth century. From all this we can build up a picture of Shakespeare's life.
Shakespeare was born about the 23rd April 1564, in the family home at Henley Street, in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small town in England about 100 km from London, the capital city. He was christened on that day in Holy Trinity church in Stratford. He was the third of the eight children, four boys and four girls, of John and Mary Shakespeare.
John's father, Richard, had been a farmer in a village a few miles from Stratford. John, like others of his generation, rejected the farming life in favour of learning a profitable trade. He became a glove-maker in Stratford, which was quickly becoming bigger and richer.
Stratford was a flourishing market town of about 1400 people, with many trades, the chief of which was brewing beer. It had regular trading fairs and markets, and many travellers passed through it. John Shakespeare made many other leather goods besides gloves. He became rich and rose rapidly to positions of importance in the town, becoming bailiff (i.e. mayor) in 1569. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, was from a rich and ancient landowning family, so John had made more than one step in the world.
John Shakespeare's son, William, almost certainly attended the local grammar shool, the King's New School. Girls received little education. They had some training at home in needlework, singing and other skills, but boys of prosperous families started school at the age of four or five. A great deal of time was spent studying the 1-atin language. '1'he school day was a demanding one. It started at six in the morning and went on with little break until five in the afternoon.
William Shakespeare probably left school at the age of fifteen or sixteen. He then probably became an apprentice or trainee in his father's shop.
At the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer, who was seven or eight years older than him. Anne gave birth to their first child, Susanna, about six months later. 1,ess than two years after that, in February 1585, the twins, Hamnet (who died at eleven) and Judith (who lived to seventy-seven) were born.
Almost nothing is known about Shakespeare's life between 1585 and the early 1590s, though there are many legends. For example, it is said that he stole deer from a rich man's estate and had to escape to London to avoid being prosecuted. Some people believe that he worked as a schoolmaster, a lawyer's clerk, a soldier, a printer or a seaman. We shall probably never know.
We know for certain that at some point in these years he went to London, and eventually became an actor and playwright. (The 'Wright' in 'playwright' has nothing to do with writing, but means a 'craftsman' or 'maker', as in 'shipwright', or 'wheelwright'.)
By 1594 Shakespeare was one of a group of actors called the Lord Chamberlain's Men. There were several such groups, each depending on a patron, a rich man who supported them with gifts of money. The best groups soon be- came profitable enough for the actors to grow rich, as Shakespeare himself did. By 1598 he was famous for writing tragedy, comedy and history plays, and also poetry.
In 1597 he was rich enough to buy New Place, the second largest house in Stratford, and in the 1600s he bought several more pieces of land around the town. He stayed with the Lord Chamberlain's Men, who were renamed the Kin's Men when James 1 became King in 1603, until he retired from the stage. He did little writing after 1610 and none, as far as we know, after 1613. He spent his last years in Stratford, only occasionally visiting London. He concerned himself with his business affairs, over which he was extremely careful. He remained a countryman, although he was a man of wide experience in the larger world of town and city. His plays reflect both town and country life.
In his will he remembered his family, his old friends from the theatre, and some ordinary people of his native town. He died on 23rd April 1616, and was buried two years later in the church in which, fifty-two years earlier, he had been christened.
Shakespeare's England
The England that Shakespeare knew was very different from the modem industrialised country it is today.
The countryside
Most people lived in small towns or villages, and the great majority were farmers. They kept sheep, chickens and cattle, and grew fruit, vegetables, wheat, oats and barley. They used horses for pulling ploughs and carts. Many farmers, like William Shakespeare's grandfather, Richard, were tenant farmers (that is, they rented land from rich landowners). Far larger areas than today were forest or marshes, and were not used for agriculture or housing.
Most rural people stayed in the same village throughout their whole lives. Transport was very difficult, as there were, of course, no buses, trains or cars, and roads were few and extremely bad. Ale main ways of travelling were on horseback, by horse-drawn carriage, or by boat along rivers and along the coast.
Houses were usually one or two storeys high, built of brick or of wood and mud, with thatched or tiled roofs, like Anne 1-lathaway's cottage. Rich people, however, lived in far bigger houses, and some in huge and beautiful palaces with hundreds of rooms. There were also many beautiful churches.
The towns
Towns were far smaller than they are today, and there were no big industries as we know them. People carried on many different trades and crafts, working at home or in small workshops. Clothmaking, leatherwork (such as Richard Shakespeare was engaged in), pottery, carpentry, baking, brewing, preparing meat, working in iron and steel, gold and silver, were examples of trades carried on in towns and villages. A great deal of very beautiful and skilled work was carried on in architecture, wood-carving, plasterwork for walls and ceilings, painting, embroidery and jewellery.
London
London was the capital city, then as now, but it had many fewer people than nowadays. It was a rich city that traded with many countries. It was also crowded, dangerous and dirty. There were many beautiful buildings, but there was no clean water supply or proper sanitation. Sewage ran into the river Thames. Rich people used to carry bunches of flowers or spiced oranges close to their noses when they walked in the streets because the smell was so bad. Not surprisingly, there were many outbreaks of the plague and other diseases. Most houses were built of wood and were crammed close together. In 1666, fifty years after Shakespeare died, most of London was burnt down in the famous 'Great Fire'.
The social system
There was a great difference between the way ordinary people and the rich and powerful ones lived. Rich landowners could keep hundreds of craftsmen working for them, as well as hundreds of permanent servants. Some- times they also supported drama or music and became 'patrons' to a group of actors or musicians, paying them for their work. The Earl of Southampton was Shakespeare's patron. At the head of all these rich and powerful people was the Queen, Elizabeth 1. From Whitehall in London, she and her chief ministers ruled the country.
Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603. Her position was very "rent from that of the present Queen, Elizabeth II. She had more power than a modern-day President or Prime Minister: she often disagreed with Parliament, and could order the imprisonment or death of anyone, even an important minister or landowner.
Like other rich people of the day, Elizabeth I was a great patroness of poetry, drama, music and all the crafts. She loved beautiful clothes and had thousands of highly decorated dresses stored in her various palaces.
Elizabeth, and her successor James I, who ruled from 1603 to 1625, were, like all the kings and queens before them, different in one very important way from most modern Presidents or Prime Ministers. People believed that they were the representatives of God, and had a divine, or God-given, right to rule, which put them above everyone else in the country. People believed strongly that everyone had a fixed position in life. Anyone, for example, who opposed a king, as Macbeth does when he kills King Duncan, is breaking the proper order of things. Just as all parts of the body should obey the head, so the wife should obey the husband, and the subject the Queen (or King). Highest of all was God, whom everyone had to obey.
Everyone at any level of society was very likely to remain there: a farmer's son was likely to remain a farmer, and, unlike today, could not easily rise to a position of power through education. William Shakespeare's father, John, was an example of a farmer's son who was quite successful in his own town, but most really important people of Shakespeare's day were from a few powerful old families.
Shakespeare's plays reflect the big differences between the classes of people. His heroes and heroines are usually kings, queens or other aristocrats - rich and powerful people. Often such people came to watch his plays so they were, of course, interested. Even the ordinary men and women in the audience usually expected to see plays about exceptional or famous people, not about ordinary people like themselves. Shakespeare's plays are mostly written in poetry, but his poor people and servants usually speak in prose (that is, ordinary, non-poetic language). Most of the humorous scenes in Shakespeare deal with ordinary people rather than aristocrats, so that we laugh at 'lower-class' people more often than at 'upper-class' ones.
Religion
England had been Catholic until the middle of the sixteenth century when Henry VII quarrelled with the Pope and broke away from the Church of Rome. Elizabeth 1 enforced Protestant Christianity by law. Those not attending church regularly were punished. Catholics were increasingly oppressed.
For the first time, the Bible was widely available in English, and the large numbers of illiterate people could at least hear it read. Shakespeare's work uses the rhythms and images of the Bible, though he does not often mention characters or stories by name.
The Renaissance
The Renaissance (rebirth of learning) began in Italy in the fourteenth century and spread throughout Europe. There was new interest in the ancient Greek and Roman classics, and also new forms of art, architecture, music and literature. It was a period of change, questioning and vitality. People no longer believed everything they were told, but tried to find things out for themselves. Shakespeare's plays are part of this 'rebirth'.
Poetry and drama
In England it was above all an age of great poetry and drama. Besides Shakespeare himself, there were Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Chapmen, Johnson, and many other important writers. The drama especially flowered as never be- fore in England. Elizabethan music is also still performed and enjoyed in many places today.
Science, magic and medicine
Scientific and medical knowledge was progressing very fast in Shakespeare's day, but there was still a great deal of ignorance. People knew very little about health care, and did not understand that dirt breeds disease. William Shakespeare was one of eight children, but three of them died in childhood. Only he and one sister lived to over fifty. This was typical for that period. 'Apothecaries', or chemists, like the one in Romeo and Juliet, knew a lot about medicinal herbs, but there were many mistaken beliefs. People believed that a sick person could be cured by having the bad blood taken out of him: leeches, which look rather like small worms, were put on sick people's skin to suck out the 'bad blood'. People often died of the medicine they were given rather than of the disease!
People thought that everything was made up of four 'elements', Air, Water, Earth and Fire. In the human body there were four liquids, the 'humours', which corresponded to the elements and affected a person's behaviour. These were melancholy (bitter black bile from the liver) which made one sad; blood, which made one courageous; choler (bitter yellow bile from the liver) which made one angry; and phlegm (the mucous from one's nose, etc) which made one quiet and calm.
The ideal person was supposed to be a good mixture between the humours or elements. For example, in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, (Act Five, scene 5), Brutus is described as having 'The elements/So mixed in him, that nature might stand up/And say to all the world, this was a man.'
Many people believed in witches, who co-operated with the devil and could harm others by their strange prayers and medicines; they could see into the future, like the three witches in Macbeth. Many harmless people, especially weak-minded old women, were accused of being witches, and were burnt to death.
Astrology and astronomy
Many people believed in astrology, a study of the stars and planets which, they thought, affected people's lives. The sun, the planets and some of the stars seem to move through the twelve groups of stars we call the Zodiac. Ale position of these stars when a person is born is supposed to affect his character and the events of his life. For example, the unlucky Romeo and Juliet are called 'star-crossed lovers'. Because the stars were in a certain unfavourable position, Romeo and Juliet had to die. In other words, people cannot control their own lives, but are controlled by the stars. '1'he horoscopes, or star signs, in today's newspapers and magazines are based on a belief in astrology.
Until the late seventeenth century, people thought that the earth was the centre of the universe, with moon, sun and stars revolving around it. Shakespeare probably believed this. Astronomy, the science of studying the planets and stars, was progressing very fast but, as late as 1616, the Italian astronomer Galileo got into trouble with the Catholic Church for supporting the view that the earth went round the sun.
Exploration
In general, however, people in Western Europe were finding out more and more about the world. Explorers sailed to Africa, Asia and America in their small (by our standards) wooden sailing boats, bringing back information and riches to their countries. Scientists were looking at the sky through the telescope (which was invented in 160, and performing many experiments to find out about the body, about medicine, and about the world around them.
Elizabethan drama
Today's theatres are comfortable buildings with seats for all the audience, and powerful electric lighting to illuminate the actors performing on stage. Often there is complicated scenery made of wood or cloth, representing walls, trees and so on, to give the impression of indoor or outdoor scenes.
In Shakespeare's day, theatres were Very different. The central part had no roof. As there was no electricity to light the theatres they had to depend on sun- light. The central, open-air part contained the stage and a yard. Many of the audience stood in the yard in front of the stage. The stage was raised so that everyone could see. Those who could pay higher prices sat on seats arranged in two or three storeys in a rough circle around the yard, rather as in a very small football stadium. Sometimes they even sat on the stage! The top storey of seats had a roof, and there was also an extra storey, the 'heavens', above the back of the stage, which contained machinery (for example, for lowering and lifting actors playing gods). At the back of the stage were large double doors or curtains leading to a dressing room for the actors. The space behind was also used for some inside scenes, for example, Juliet's tomb in Romeo and Juliet. Actors also went in and out (entered and exited) through these doors. There were trapdoors going down through the stage, for use as tombs, prisons or even hell. Unlike today's theatres, there was no scenery, so actors in Shakespeare's time could move very freely. Costumes were often rich and impressive, but not historically accurate. For example, the Romans in Julius Caesar would have been dressed more or less as Elizabethan gentlemen. Without costumes or scenery, plays had to rely on words to show the audience where and when the story was taking place. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the play opens with lines which 'set the scene':
'Two households, both alike in dignity In fair Verona, where we lay our scene ...
(Act One, scene 1)
The audience had to use their imaginations far more than we do in the cinema or theatre today, and especially in one matter: there were no actresses! The theatre was not considered a respectable place for women to work, so all the women's parts were taken by young boys whose voices had not yet broken.
The origins of western European theatre
The western European tradition of theatre began in Greece in the fifth century BC. Tragedies and comedies were performed in huge open-air theatres for thousands of people. The tragedies usually dealt with traditional heroes of the past and with the gods.
The tradition of Greek theatre continued into Roman times, and famous Latin plays were written until about the first century AD. These Greek and Latin plays continued to be read, first in the original languages, and later in translation. Shakespeare would have known many of their stories and characters. Theseus and Hippolyta, Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hecuba and Helen, Acneas and Dido in Hamlet, for example, are all characters from Latin and Greek poetry and drama. Juno, Jupiter, Mars and Venus are some of the many gods that the Greeks and Romans believed in before the introduction of Christianity. These gods are often mentioned in Shakespeare's plays.
There was another tradition of drama in Western Europe. 'Mystery' plays based on Bible stories were performed on religious holidays in churches and market places. These were lively, often exciting and humorous plays, and they may well have helped to fire Shakespeare's imagination and point him towards his career as a playwright. Shakespeare, and the other playwrights of his time, also took stories from English and European history, and from novels, poems and plays by earlier writers.
In the sixteenth century, plays were first performed in the yards of inns (hotels) with a stage set up against a wall. Groups of actors used to travel round the country performing plays in inns and the houses of rich people.
The first building specially designed as a theatre was opened in London in 1576. The Globe Theatre was opened in 1599. Shakespeare's plays were performed here and in other London theatres such as the Swan and the Blackfriars Theatre.
MACBETH
Historical and theatrical background
Macbeth was written early in 1606, and the earliest recorded performance was in 1611 at the Globe Theatre, London. It is likely, however, that the play had been performed earlier than this.
It is one of the shortest of Shakespeare's plays. From the nineteenth century onwards, Macbeth has often been performed by companies as a special attraction when business was going badly. This is one of the reasons why actors consider it bad luck to quote from the play, or to mention it by name, especially inside the theatre - they always refer to it as 'the Scottish play'!
Shakespeare took the story from the Chronicles (1577), a history written mainly by Raphael Holinshed and known by his name, 'Holinshed'. He in turn had taken the story from the work of a Scottish historian called Hector Boyce, writing about fifty years earlier. Though Shakespeare develops the story in his own way, and invents a good deal, the central characters and events were closely based on actual history. King James I of England (who was also King James VI of Scotland), for example, was proud to count both Banquo and King Duncan among his ancestors.
The central theme of the play is the destruction caused when an ambitious man usurps power and undermines social and political order. In the process, moral and spiritual order are also seriously attacked, but in the end order is restored under a wise, strong and legitimate king. It is likely that Shakespeare wrote the play partly as a compliment to King James and as a celebration of that ordered rule which had very nearly been destroyed by the Gunpowder Plot.
Two difficulties which modem audiences sometimes have with this play concern the witches and the ghosts or apparitions, and these need some comment. In the case of the ghost of Banquo and the apparitions apparently conjured up by the witches, our difficulty need not be so great - if we do not believe in ghosts or visions, we can respond to these things as if they were hallucinations or delusions on Macbeth's part, caused by a guilty conscience or a vivid imagination. There are, however, people in the West who do believe in such phenomena, or who think that there might possibly be such things.
As far as witches are concerned, the position is more complicated. Belief in witchcraft is widely distributed in human society, past and present. Records of such beliefs go back to probably the prehistoric period, though some people (e.g. the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert) do not have a belief in witch- craft. Generally witches are thought to be strange, abnormal people who use what they believe to be supernatural means in order to achieve some harmful, evil ends. Some societies, however, recognise 'white' witchcraft, the use of such powers for beneficial aims such as curing the sick. Witches are often blamed as the cause of things going wrong - e.g. for illnesses or untimely deaths, or the failure of crops.
Some people in Shakespeare's time thought that the beliefs about witches were simply superstitions. Others, like King James I himself, at first doubted but later appeared to be convinced that witches did have extraordinary and evil powers. He was very interested in the subject and wrote a book on it called Demonology (1597; Published in England 1603). Most people in those days, however, did believe in the evil power of witches, who were thought to be earthly representatives of the Prince of Evil. An Act of Parliament of 1604 made the practice of witchcraft an offence punishable by death. The campaign against witches was waged relentlessly, by Catholics and by Protestants, for centuries. It was not until the more secular philosophy of the modem world began to emerge from the late seventeenth century onwards that the European witch-craze died down. Many innocent women must have been killed over the centuries, however. There are still reports of traditional witchcraft practices and beliefs in Western societies in recent years.
Whatever we think of witchcraft, one thing is clear about Macbeth: Shakespeare does not put the blame for what happens on the witches. They have a keen interest and delight in encouraging human evil, but Shakespeare shows that evil is really in certain human beings themselves. Supernatural powers and their human agents can encourage this human evil to flourish, but they do not create it. The witches foretell the future - Macbeth, briefly, makes it.
Language and structure
Shakespeare telescopes the events of the play into what seems a short space of time, and the play has a very tight structure. We see Macbeth at the beginning and end of the play as a soldier - at the beginning he is a hero, loyal to the rightful king, and part of a system of order. At the end, however, he is a hated tyrant who has killed the rightful king, dispossessed his heir, killed others who would be in his way, and reduced the ordered kingdom to terror and anarchy. He is also, at the end, no longer part of a coherent society, but instead he is alone.
The first movement of the play is triggered by the prophecies of the witches - that Macbeth will be Thane of Glamis (as he is), Thane of Cawdor, and king hereafter, and that Banquo, though not becoming king himself, will be father to a line of longs. The prophecies add to what Macbeth has evidently already been thinking and help to impel him to the various actions of killing the king and having Banquo murdered. The second meeting with the witches also contains three prophecies - that Macbeth is to beware Macduff; that he should not fear anyone born of woman; and that he would be safe until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane. His reactions to the second set of prophecies lead to his downfall and death.
The witch scenes are therefore important in relating the two movements of the play, but the turning point of the plot is the banquet scene. Macbeth here briefly is able to act the part of king. The murder of Banquo should have made him secure, but ironically it is this which leads him to give himself away. Though Macbeth is able to gain control of himself eventually, it is too late, and though Lady Macbeth is still strong and determined, it is for the last time. There can be no looking back for him, and he determines that he has no choice but to go on killing.
It has been said that the play has some of the symbolic force of a morality play, and this is true. Yet the characters are not personifications of abstract virtues or vices, but living human beings, and sometimes very complex ones. Instead the symbolic force springs from the formal structure - what we have is a tight pattern of cause and effect, with every action leading to consequences which in turn have further results. The structure gives a sense of inevitability to the play, with nothing irrelevant and yet everything seeming natural in its place. Everything springs from the character of Macbeth himself and its impact, in action, upon those around him. The short scenes which occur from time to time, e.g. between Ross and the Old Man, or between the doctor and the gentlewoman, serve as a commentary on what has been happening, and enable us to see the events as part of a universal context.
The language of the play is particularly memorable for several related groups of images which powerfully help to achieve the presentation of the themes of the play. Especially noticeable are the following: images of clothing, particularly pointing to the difference between external appearance and the reality beneath, and sometimes implying that the clothes are too big for the wearer; images of bloodshed, and the attempts to wash away blood; images of sleep and sleeplessness; images of food and of banquets; images of disorder in the worlds of animals; images of health and disease.
The themes
The major themes of Macbeth are as follows: the sanctity of rightful kingship; the destructive nature of usurpation; the inwardly as well as outwardly destructive nature of evil (i.e. that it destroys the evildoer as well as his victims); the correspondence between order and disorder in the state, in nature, and in individuals; the justifiable killing of the usurper.
Summary of the plot
Macbeth and Banquo are generals in the army of Duncan, King of Scotland. They have just defeated an army of Norwegian invaders and Scottish rebels. They meet three witches, who greet Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor and 'king hereafter'. The witches tell Banquo that although he will not be king himself, he will be the father of many kings. The witches vanish, and news comes that Duncan has made Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, in place of the former Thane, who has proved to be a traitor.
Macbeth writes to tell Lady Macbeth of his adventures and the witches' prophecies about his future, and about the new title Duncan has given him. She starts to plan Duncan's death.
Duncan decides to spend the night at Macbeth's castle. Macbeth's own ambition, and the fact that the witches' prophecy came true, lead him to give in to his wife's persuasion and to kill the sleeping king. The king's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, are suspected, and run away, and Macbeth is crowned king.
Macbeth determines to defeat the witches' prophecy concerning Banquo's children. He therefore tries to have Banquo and his son Fleance killed while they are out riding, but Fleance escapes.
The ghost of the murdered Banquo appears at Macbeth's banquet to haunt him, and he decides to consult the witches again. They tell him to beware of Macduff, Thane of Fife; that no one born of woman can harm him; and that he will never be defeated until Birnam Forest moves to Dunsinane. He therefore believes that fate is on his side. On learning that Macduff has gone to England, to raise an army to come back and fight him, Macbeth kills Lady Macduff and her children. Lady Macbeth goes mad and dies, and Macbeth is alone. The attacking army led by Malcolm and Macduff cut branches from the trees in Birnam Wood and use them as camouflage as they walk to Dunsinane - so that it looks as though the wood itself is moving, as the prophecy foretold. Macbeth goes to fight Macduff, who reveals that he was not born in the normal way but by Caesarean section (i.e. 'untimely ripped' from the womb) - thus the last prophecy comes true. Macduff kills Macbeth and Malcolm becomes King of Scotland. -
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Shakespeare's life
Shakespeare's plays are read and performed all over the world. Yet they were written by an ordinary Englishman almost four hundred years ago. Ben Johnson, a fellow writer of Shakespeare, said that he was not for any one century, but for all time. One might add that he was for all places and all races.
We do not know many firm facts about most ordinary people of William Shakespeare's time, but we do know quite a lot about him. Several documents, or papers, about him survive. They include baptismal and burial records, business and theatre papers, and his Will. We also know a great deal about life in the sixteenth century. From all this we can build up a picture of Shakespeare's life.
Shakespeare was born about the 23rd April 1564, in the family home at Henley Street, in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small town in England about 100 km from London, the capital city. He was christened on that day in Holy Trinity church in Stratford. He was the third of the eight children, four boys and four girls, of John and Mary Shakespeare.
John's father, Richard, had been a farmer in a village a few miles from Stratford. John, like others of his generation, rejected the farming life in favour of learning a profitable trade. He became a glove-maker in Stratford, which was quickly becoming bigger and richer.
Stratford was a flourishing market town of about 1400 people, with many trades, the chief of which was brewing beer. It had regular trading fairs and markets, and many travellers passed through it. John Shakespeare made many other leather goods besides gloves. He became rich and rose rapidly to positions of importance in the town, becoming bailiff (i.e. mayor) in 1569. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, was from a rich and ancient landowning family, so John had made more than one step in the world.
John Shakespeare's son, William, almost certainly attended the local grammar shool, the King's New School. Girls received little education. They had some training at home in needlework, singing and other skills, but boys of prosperous families started school at the age of four or five. A great deal of time was spent studying the 1-atin language. '1'he school day was a demanding one. It started at six in the morning and went on with little break until five in the afternoon.
William Shakespeare probably left school at the age of fifteen or sixteen. He then probably became an apprentice or trainee in his father's shop.
At the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer, who was seven or eight years older than him. Anne gave birth to their first child, Susanna, about six months later. 1,ess than two years after that, in February 1585, the twins, Hamnet (who died at eleven) and Judith (who lived to seventy-seven) were born.
Almost nothing is known about Shakespeare's life between 1585 and the early 1590s, though there are many legends. For example, it is said that he stole deer from a rich man's estate and had to escape to London to avoid being prosecuted. Some people believe that he worked as a schoolmaster, a lawyer's clerk, a soldier, a printer or a seaman. We shall probably never know.
We know for certain that at some point in these years he went to London, and eventually became an actor and playwright. (The 'Wright' in 'playwright' has nothing to do with writing, but means a 'craftsman' or 'maker', as in 'shipwright', or 'wheelwright'.)
By 1594 Shakespeare was one of a group of actors called the Lord Chamberlain's Men. There were several such groups, each depending on a patron, a rich man who supported them with gifts of money. The best groups soon be- came profitable enough for the actors to grow rich, as Shakespeare himself did. By 1598 he was famous for writing tragedy, comedy and history plays, and also poetry.
In 1597 he was rich enough to buy New Place, the second largest house in Stratford, and in the 1600s he bought several more pieces of land around the town. He stayed with the Lord Chamberlain's Men, who were renamed the Kin's Men when James 1 became King in 1603, until he retired from the stage. He did little writing after 1610 and none, as far as we know, after 1613. He spent his last years in Stratford, only occasionally visiting London. He concerned himself with his business affairs, over which he was extremely careful. He remained a countryman, although he was a man of wide experience in the larger world of town and city. His plays reflect both town and country life.
In his will he remembered his family, his old friends from the theatre, and some ordinary people of his native town. He died on 23rd April 1616, and was buried two years later in the church in which, fifty-two years earlier, he had been christened.
Shakespeare's England
The England that Shakespeare knew was very different from the modem industrialised country it is today.
The countryside
Most people lived in small towns or villages, and the great majority were farmers. They kept sheep, chickens and cattle, and grew fruit, vegetables, wheat, oats and barley. They used horses for pulling ploughs and carts. Many farmers, like William Shakespeare's grandfather, Richard, were tenant farmers (that is, they rented land from rich landowners). Far larger areas than today were forest or marshes, and were not used for agriculture or housing.
Most rural people stayed in the same village throughout their whole lives. Transport was very difficult, as there were, of course, no buses, trains or cars, and roads were few and extremely bad. Ale main ways of travelling were on horseback, by horse-drawn carriage, or by boat along rivers and along the coast.
Houses were usually one or two storeys high, built of brick or of wood and mud, with thatched or tiled roofs, like Anne 1-lathaway's cottage. Rich people, however, lived in far bigger houses, and some in huge and beautiful palaces with hundreds of rooms. There were also many beautiful churches.
The towns
Towns were far smaller than they are today, and there were no big industries as we know them. People carried on many different trades and crafts, working at home or in small workshops. Clothmaking, leatherwork (such as Richard Shakespeare was engaged in), pottery, carpentry, baking, brewing, preparing meat, working in iron and steel, gold and silver, were examples of trades carried on in towns and villages. A great deal of very beautiful and skilled work was carried on in architecture, wood-carving, plasterwork for walls and ceilings, painting, embroidery and jewellery.
London
London was the capital city, then as now, but it had many fewer people than nowadays. It was a rich city that traded with many countries. It was also crowded, dangerous and dirty. There were many beautiful buildings, but there was no clean water supply or proper sanitation. Sewage ran into the river Thames. Rich people used to carry bunches of flowers or spiced oranges close to their noses when they walked in the streets because the smell was so bad. Not surprisingly, there were many outbreaks of the plague and other diseases. Most houses were built of wood and were crammed close together. In 1666, fifty years after Shakespeare died, most of London was burnt down in the famous 'Great Fire'.
The social system
There was a great difference between the way ordinary people and the rich and powerful ones lived. Rich landowners could keep hundreds of craftsmen working for them, as well as hundreds of permanent servants. Some- times they also supported drama or music and became 'patrons' to a group of actors or musicians, paying them for their work. The Earl of Southampton was Shakespeare's patron. At the head of all these rich and powerful people was the Queen, Elizabeth I. From Whitehall in London, she and her chief ministers ruled the country.
Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603. Her position was very "rent from that of the present Queen, Elizabeth II. She had more power than a modern-day President or Prime Minister: she often disagreed with Parliament, and could order the imprisonment or death of anyone, even an important minister or landowner.
Like other rich people of the day, Elizabeth I was a great patroness of poetry, drama, music and all the crafts. She loved beautiful clothes and had thousands of highly decorated dresses stored in her various palaces.
Elizabeth, and her successor James I, who ruled from 1603 to 1625, were, like all the kings and queens before them, different in one very important way from most modern Presidents or Prime Ministers. People believed that they were the representatives of God, and had a divine, or God-given, right to rule, which put them above everyone else in the country. People believed strongly that everyone had a fixed position in life. Anyone, for example, who opposed a king, as Macbeth does when he kills King Duncan, is breaking the proper order of things. Just as all parts of the body should obey the head, so the wife should obey the husband, and the subject the Queen (or King). Highest of all was God, whom everyone had to obey.
Everyone at any level of society was very likely to remain there: a farmer's son was likely to remain a farmer, and, unlike today, could not easily rise to a position of power through education. William Shakespeare's father, John, was an example of a farmer's son who was quite successful in his own town, but most really important people of Shakespeare's day were from a few powerful old families.
Shakespeare's plays reflect the big differences between the classes of people. His heroes and heroines are usually kings, queens or other aristocrats - rich and powerful people. Often such people came to watch his plays so they were, of course, interested. Even the ordinary men and women in the audience usually expected to see plays about exceptional or famous people, not about ordinary people like themselves. Shakespeare's plays are mostly written in poetry, but his poor people and servants usually speak in prose (that is, ordinary, non-poetic language). Most of the humorous scenes in Shakespeare deal with ordinary people rather than aristocrats, so that we laugh at 'lower-class' people more often than at 'upper-class' ones.
Religion
England had been Catholic until the middle of the sixteenth century when Henry VII quarrelled with the Pope and broke away from the Church of Rome. Elizabeth 1 enforced Protestant Christianity by law. Those not attending church regularly were punished. Catholics were increasingly oppressed.
For the first time, the Bible was widely available in English, and the large numbers of illiterate people could at least hear it read. Shakespeare's work uses the rhythms and images of the Bible, though he does not often mention characters or stories by name.
The Renaissance
The Renaissance (rebirth of learning) began in Italy in the fourteenth century and spread throughout Europe. There was new interest in the ancient Greek and Roman classics, and also new forms of art, architecture, music and literature. It was a period of change, questioning and vitality. People no longer believed everything they were told, but tried to find things out for themselves. Shakespeare's plays are part of this 'rebirth'.
Poetry and drama
In England it was above all an age of great poetry and drama. Besides Shakespeare himself, there were Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Chapmen, Johnson, and many other important writers. The drama especially flowered as never be- fore in England. Elizabethan music is also still performed and enjoyed in many places today.
Science, magic and medicine
Scientific and medical knowledge was progressing very fast in Shakespeare's day, but there was still a great deal of ignorance. People knew very little about health care, and did not understand that dirt breeds disease. William Shakespeare was one of eight children, but three of them died in childhood. Only he and one sister lived to over fifty. This was typical for that period. 'Apothecaries', or chemists, like the one in Romeo and Juliet, knew a lot about medicinal herbs, but there were many mistaken beliefs. People believed that a sick person could be cured by having the bad blood taken out of him: leeches, which look rather like small worms, were put on sick people's skin to suck out the 'bad blood'. People often died of the medicine they were given rather than of the disease!
People thought that everything was made up of four 'elements', Air, Water, Earth and Fire. In the human body there were four liquids, the 'humours', which corresponded to the elements and affected a person's behaviour. These were melancholy (bitter black bile from the liver) which made one sad; blood, which made one courageous; choler (bitter yellow bile from the liver) which made one angry; and phlegm (the mucous from one's nose, etc) which made one quiet and calm.
The ideal person was supposed to be a good mixture between the humours or elements. For example, in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, (Act Five, scene 5), Brutus is described as having 'The elements/So mixed in him, that nature might stand up/And say to all the world, this was a man.'
Many people believed in witches, who co-operated with the devil and could harm others by their strange prayers and medicines; they could see into the future, like the three witches in Macbeth. Many harmless people, especially weak-minded old women, were accused of being witches, and were burnt to death.
Astrology and astronomy
Many people believed in astrology, a study of the stars and planets which, they thought, affected people's lives. The sun, the planets and some of the stars seem to move through the twelve groups of stars we call the Zodiac. Ale position of these stars when a person is born is supposed to affect his character and the events of his life. For example, the unlucky Romeo and Juliet are called 'star-crossed lovers'. Because the stars were in a certain unfavourable position, Romeo and Juliet had to die. In other words, people cannot control their own lives, but are controlled by the stars. '1'he horoscopes, or star signs, in today's newspapers and magazines are based on a belief in astrology.
Until the late seventeenth century, people thought that the earth was the centre of the universe, with moon, sun and stars revolving around it. Shakespeare probably believed this. Astronomy, the science of studying the planets and stars, was progressing very fast but, as late as 1616, the Italian astronomer Galileo got into trouble with the Catholic Church for supporting the view that the earth went round the sun.
Exploration
In general, however, people in Western Europe were finding out more and more about the world. Explorers sailed to Africa, Asia and America in their small (by our standards) wooden sailing boats, bringing back information and riches to their countries. Scientists were looking at the sky through the telescope (which was invented in 160, and performing many experiments to find out about the body, about medicine, and about the world around them.
Elizabethan drama
Today's theatres are comfortable buildings with seats for all the audience, and powerful electric lighting to illuminate the actors performing on stage. Often there is complicated scenery made of wood or cloth, representing walls, trees and so on, to give the impression of indoor or outdoor scenes.
In Shakespeare's day, theatres were Very different. The central part had no roof. As there was no electricity to light the theatres they had to depend on sun- light. The central, open-air part contained the stage and a yard. Many of the audience stood in the yard in front of the stage. The stage was raised so that everyone could see. Those who could pay higher prices sat on seats arranged in two or three storeys in a rough circle around the yard, rather as in a very small football stadium. Sometimes they even sat on the stage! The top storey of seats had a roof, and there was also an extra storey, the 'heavens', above the back of the stage, which contained machinery (for example, for lowering and lifting actors playing gods). At the back of the stage were large double doors or curtains leading to a dressing room for the actors. The space behind was also used for some inside scenes, for example, Juliet's tomb in Romeo and Juliet. Actors also went in and out (entered and exited) through these doors. There were trapdoors going down through the stage, for use as tombs, prisons or even hell. Unlike today's theatres, there was no scenery, so actors in Shakespeare's time could move very freely. Costumes were often rich and impressive, but not historically accurate. For example, the Romans in Julius Caesar would have been dressed more or less as Elizabethan gentlemen. Without costumes or scenery, plays had to rely on words to show the audience where and when the story was taking place. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the play opens with lines which 'set the scene':
'Two households, both alike in dignity In fair Verona, where we lay our scene ...
(Act One, scene 1)
The audience had to use their imaginations far more than we do in the cinema or theatre today, and especially in one matter: there were no actresses! The theatre was not considered a respectable place for women to work, so all the women's parts were taken by young boys whose voices had not yet broken.
The origins of western European theatre
The western European tradition of theatre began in Greece in the fifth century BC. Tragedies and comedies were performed in huge open-air theatres for thousands of people. The tragedies usually dealt with traditional heroes of the past and with the gods.
The tradition of Greek theatre continued into Roman times, and famous Latin plays were written until about the first century AD. These Greek and Latin plays continued to be read, first in the original languages, and later in translation. Shakespeare would have known many of their stories and characters. Theseus and Hippolyta, Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hecuba and Helen, Acneas and Dido in Hamlet, for example, are all characters from Latin and Greek poetry and drama. Juno, Jupiter, Mars and Venus are some of the many gods that the Greeks and Romans believed in before the introduction of Christianity. These gods are often mentioned in Shakespeare's plays.
There was another tradition of drama in Western Europe. 'Mystery' plays based on Bible stories were performed on religious holidays in churches and market places. These were lively, often exciting and humorous plays, and they may well have helped to fire Shakespeare's imagination and point him towards his career as a playwright. Shakespeare, and the other playwrights of his time, also took stories from English and European history, and from novels, poems and plays by earlier writers.
In the sixteenth century, plays were first performed in the yards of inns (hotels) with a stage set up against a wall. Groups of actors used to travel round the country performing plays in inns and the houses of rich people.
The first building specially designed as a theatre was opened in London in 1576. The Globe Theatre was opened in 1599. Shakespeare's plays were performed here and in other London theatres such as the Swan and the Blackfriars Theatre.
MACBETH
Historical and theatrical background
Macbeth was written early in 1606, and the earliest recorded performance was in 1611 at the Globe Theatre, London. It is likely, however, that the play had been performed earlier than this.
It is one of the shortest of Shakespeare's plays. From the nineteenth century onwards, Macbeth has often been performed by companies as a special attraction when business was going badly. This is one of the reasons why actors consider it bad luck to quote from the play, or to mention it by name, especially inside the theatre - they always refer to it as 'the Scottish play'!
Shakespeare took the story from the Chronicles (1577), a history written mainly by Raphael Holinshed and known by his name, 'Holinshed'. He in turn had taken the story from the work of a Scottish historian called Hector Boyce, writing about fifty years earlier. Though Shakespeare develops the story in his own way, and invents a good deal, the central characters and events were closely based on actual history. King James I of England (who was also King James VI of Scotland), for example, was proud to count both Banquo and King Duncan among his ancestors.
The central theme of the play is the destruction caused when an ambitious man usurps power and undermines social and political order. In the process, moral and spiritual order are also seriously attacked, but in the end order is restored under a wise, strong and legitimate king. It is likely that Shakespeare wrote the play partly as a compliment to King James and as a celebration of that ordered rule which had very nearly been destroyed by the Gunpowder Plot.
Two difficulties which modem audiences sometimes have with this play concern the witches and the ghosts or apparitions, and these need some comment. In the case of the ghost of Banquo and the apparitions apparently conjured up by the witches, our difficulty need not be so great - if we do not believe in ghosts or visions, we can respond to these things as if they were hallucinations or delusions on Macbeth's part, caused by a guilty conscience or a vivid imagination. There are, however, people in the West who do believe in such phenomena, or who think that there might possibly be such things.
As far as witches are concerned, the position is more complicated. Belief in witchcraft is widely distributed in human society, past and present. Records of such beliefs go back to probably the prehistoric period, though some people (e.g. the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert) do not have a belief in witch- craft. Generally witches are thought to be strange, abnormal people who use what they believe to be supernatural means in order to achieve some harmful, evil ends. Some societies, however, recognise 'white' witchcraft, the use of such powers for beneficial aims such as curing the sick. Witches are often blamed as the cause of things going wrong - e.g. for illnesses or untimely deaths, or the failure of crops.
Some people in Shakespeare's time thought that the beliefs about witches were simply superstitions. Others, like King James I himself, at first doubted but later appeared to be convinced that witches did have extraordinary and evil powers. He was very interested in the subject and wrote a book on it called Demonology (1597; Published in England 1603). Most people in those days, however, did believe in the evil power of witches, who were thought to be earthly representatives of the Prince of Evil. An Act of Parliament of 1604 made the practice of witchcraft an offence punishable by death. The campaign against witches was waged relentlessly, by Catholics and by Protestants, for centuries. It was not until the more secular philosophy of the modem world began to emerge from the late seventeenth century onwards that the European witch-craze died down. Many innocent women must have been killed over the centuries, however. There are still reports of traditional witchcraft practices and beliefs in Western societies in recent years.
Whatever we think of witchcraft, one thing is clear about Macbeth: Shakespeare does not put the blame for what happens on the witches. They have a keen interest and delight in encouraging human evil, but Shakespeare shows that evil is really in certain human beings themselves. Supernatural powers and their human agents can encourage this human evil to flourish, but they do not create it. The witches foretell the future - Macbeth, briefly, makes it.
Language and structure
Shakespeare telescopes the events of the play into what seems a short space of time, and the play has a very tight structure. We see Macbeth at the beginning and end of the play as a soldier - at the beginning he is a hero, loyal to the rightful king, and part of a system of order. At the end, however, he is a hated tyrant who has killed the rightful king, dispossessed his heir, killed others who would be in his way, and reduced the ordered kingdom to terror and anarchy. He is also, at the end, no longer part of a coherent society, but instead he is alone.
The first movement of the play is triggered by the prophecies of the witches - that Macbeth will be Thane of Glamis (as he is), Thane of Cawdor, and king hereafter, and that Banquo, though not becoming king himself, will be father to a line of longs. The prophecies add to what Macbeth has evidently already been thinking and help to impel him to the various actions of killing the king and having Banquo murdered. The second meeting with the witches also contains three prophecies - that Macbeth is to beware Macduff; that he should not fear anyone born of woman; and that he would be safe until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane. His reactions to the second set of prophecies lead to his downfall and death.
The witch scenes are therefore important in relating the two movements of the play, but the turning point of the plot is the banquet scene. Macbeth here briefly is able to act the part of king. The murder of Banquo should have made him secure, but ironically it is this which leads him to give himself away. Though Macbeth is able to gain control of himself eventually, it is too late, and though Lady Macbeth is still strong and determined, it is for the last time. There can be no looking back for him, and he determines that he has no choice but to go on killing.
It has been said that the play has some of the symbolic force of a morality play, and this is true. Yet the characters are not personifications of abstract virtues or vices, but living human beings, and sometimes very complex ones. Instead the symbolic force springs from the formal structure - what we have is a tight pattern of cause and effect, with every action leading to consequences which in turn have further results. The structure gives a sense of inevitability to the play, with nothing irrelevant and yet everything seeming natural in its place. Everything springs from the character of Macbeth himself and its impact, in action, upon those around him. The short scenes which occur from time to time, e.g. between Ross and the Old Man, or between the doctor and the gentlewoman, serve as a commentary on what has been happening, and enable us to see the events as part of a universal context.
The language of the play is particularly memorable for several related groups of images which powerfully help to achieve the presentation of the themes of the play. Especially noticeable are the following: images of clothing, particularly pointing to the difference between external appearance and the reality beneath, and sometimes implying that the clothes are too big for the wearer; images of bloodshed, and the attempts to wash away blood; images of sleep and sleeplessness; images of food and of banquets; images of disorder in the worlds of animals; images of health and disease.
The themes
The major themes of Macbeth are as follows: the sanctity of rightful kingship; the destructive nature of usurpation; the inwardly as well as outwardly destructive nature of evil (i.e. that it destroys the evildoer as well as his victims); the correspondence between order and disorder in the state, in nature, and in individuals; the justifiable killing of the usurper.
Summary of the plot
Macbeth and Banquo are generals in the army of Duncan, King of Scotland. They have just defeated an army of Norwegian invaders and Scottish rebels. They meet three witches, who greet Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor and 'king hereafter'. The witches tell Banquo that although he will not be king himself, he will be the father of many kings. The witches vanish, and news comes that Duncan has made Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, in place of the former Thane, who has proved to be a traitor.
Macbeth writes to tell Lady Macbeth of his adventures and the witches' prophecies about his future, and about the new title Duncan has given him. She starts to plan Duncan's death.
Duncan decides to spend the night at Macbeth's castle. Macbeth's own ambition, and the fact that the witches' prophecy came true, lead him to give in to his wife's persuasion and to kill the sleeping king. The king's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, are suspected, and run away, and Macbeth is crowned king.
Macbeth determines to defeat the witches' prophecy concerning Banquo's children. He therefore tries to have Banquo and his son Fleance killed while they are out riding, but Fleance escapes.
The ghost of the murdered Banquo appears at Macbeth's banquet to haunt him, and he decides to consult the witches again. They tell him to beware of Macduff, Thane of Fife; that no one born of woman can harm him; and that he will never be defeated until Birnam Forest moves to Dunsinane. He therefore believes that fate is on his side. On learning that Macduff has gone to England, to raise an army to come back and fight him, Macbeth kills Lady Macduff and her children. Lady Macbeth goes mad and dies, and Macbeth is alone. The attacking army led by Malcolm and Macduff cut branches from the trees in Birnam Wood and use them as camouflage as they walk to Dunsinane - so that it looks as though the wood itself is moving, as the prophecy foretold. Macbeth goes to fight Macduff, who reveals that he was not born in the normal way but by Caesarean section (i.e. 'untimely ripped' from the womb) - thus the last prophecy comes true. Macduff kills Macbeth and Malcolm becomes King of Scotland. -
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