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Unit 9: Macbeth: History and its Impact on 18th and 19th Century

• Macbeth, his near relation, also a grandchild of Malcolm II, though by the mother’s side, was Notes
stirred up by ambition to contest the throne with the possessor.
• Three women, of more than human stature and beauty, appeared to Macbeth in a dream or
vision, and hailed him successively by the titles of Thane of Cromarty, Thane of Moray, which
the king afterwards bestowed on him, and finally by that of King of Scots; this dream, it is
said, inspired him with the seductive hopes so well expressed in the drama.
• Macbeth was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies pages 131 to 151 inclusive, in
the division of “Tragedies.”
• George Steevens maintained that Shakespeare was indebted, in the supernatural parts of
Macbeth, to The Witch, a play by Thomas Middleton, which was discovered in manuscript
towards the end of the eighteenth century.
• Evidence suggests that Macbeth was written by command as one of the plays to be given
before King James I and the King of Denmark during the latter’s notable visit to England in
the summer of 1606.
• Shakespeare’s company was the King’s Players, and it would be natural for them to be
commanded to produce a story of Scottish history touching on the ancestry of their patron.
The title role was created by the great Richard Burbage and his infamous queen by the boy-
actress Edmans.
• When Charles II ascended the British throne in 1660, he assigned Macbeth to William Davenant
and the Duke’s Company. Not content to produce the play in its original form, Davenant
altered the work considerably to indulge his two favorite hobbies.
• David Garrick who, during his management of the Drury Lane Theatre (1742-1776), revived
Macbeth as written by Shakespeare, playing the title role there every season except four.
• The next famous pair to assay these roles were John Philip Kemble (1757-1823) and his talented
sister, Sarah Siddons, at Drury Lane in the season of 1784 and for many years thereafter.
• Siddons made an extraordinary innovation when in the sleep-walking scene she put the candle
down, defying the tradition of carrying the candle throughout.
• Samuel Phelps (1804-1878) is credited with removing the last vestiges of adaptation from
Macbeth during his management of Sadler’s Wells between 1844 and 1862.
• Charles Kean and his wife Ellen Tree staged a spectacular, long-running Macbeth at the
Princess’s Theatre in 1853, famed for its historically accurate scenery and costumes.
• Kean apparently turned in a performance considerably less ferocious than his wife’s.
• The last great pair of the 19th Century were Henry Irving and Ellen Terry at the Lyceum
Theatre in 1874 and later in 1889.

9.3 Keywords

Interlude : A short dramatic piece, especially of a light or farcicalcharacter, formerly
introduced between the parts or acts ofmiracle and morality plays or given as
part of otherentertainments.
Witch : A person, now especially a woman, who professes or is supposed to practice
magic, especially black magic or the black art.
Plagiarist : The unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another
author and the representation of them as one’s own original work, as by not
crediting the author.
Imperfections : The quality or condition of being imperfect.

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