Mcbeth

Macbeth

According to legend, Macbeth was written in 1605 or 1606. It was performed at Hampton Court in 1606 for King James I and his brother in law, King Christian of Denmark. Even if it wasn't actually performed for the King, or premiered at the Globe Theatre, as most Shakespearian plays were, there can be little doubt that aspects of the play were intended to please James I, a patron of the Shakespeare's theater group. The character of Banquo, for example, who was the legendary root of the Stuart family tree was depicted favorable, probably to please the king (a Stuart). The play was also very short, probably because Shakespeare knew that James preferred short plays. It also contains a supernatural element which Shakespeare knew James would have appreciated, as he had published a book on detecting witches. The Scottish defeat of the Danes was omitted from the play, possibly to appeal to King Christian.

The play was written on material drawn from Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1587), a history, but Shakespeare readers and editors classified it as a tragedy. The story seemed to contain many fabrications, including the character of Banquo. Banquo was invented by a 16th century Scottish historian in order to validate the Stuart family name.

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In addition to this, Shakespeare took many other liberties he incorporated into the play, such as manipulating the characters of Macbeth and Duncan to suit his purposes. In Holinshed's story, Macbeth was a ruthless, valiant leader who kills Duncan and then rules fairly for many years. Duncan was shown as a soft willed man, and not a good ruler. Shakespeare changed certain aspects of these characters trying to create a polarization between them. He made Duncan out to be a esteemed older king, and portrayed Macbeth to be younger, troubled, and faltering man who could not be a good ruler. The part in the story played by the witches was surprisingly not invented by Shakespeare, as this was in Holinshed's account of the story.

Although Macbeth is full of fabrications, it is certainly not the only play fabrications were edited