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Shakespeare, Macbeth and Renaissance Theatre. Mark Twain compared piecing together Shakespeare’s life to reconstructing a dinosaur from a few bits of bone stuck together with plaster. According to Twain, we know more about the Stegosaurus than we do about Shakespeare.
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Mark Twain compared piecing together Shakespeare’s life to reconstructing a dinosaur from a few bits of bone stuck together with plaster. According to Twain, we know more about the Stegosaurus than we do about Shakespeare.
Actually, Shakespeare’s life is unusually well-documented for a normal man during this time period, but the documentation takes the form of drab entries in church registers and city archives rather than more useful resources. • As with most 16th century births, Shakespeare’s birthday is not recorded. The baptism, however, is. Since it was customary to baptize infants 3 days after their birth. History has therefore recorded his birthday as April 23, 1564.
His death was exactly 52 years later on April 23, 1616. • Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, about 100 miles northwest of London. • He came from a middle class family. His father was an established Stratford glove maker and leather dresser (although he later became high bailiff to the area), and his mother Mary was a stay-at-home wife.
There is no record that Shakespeare attended school, but as the son of a prominent businessman, he would have been entitled to free tuition at the local grammar school. • Since Shakespeare did not attend college, he would not have been regarded as a man of learning in the same league as fellow writers Ben Johnson and John Milton.
At the age of 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway of Shottery (near Stratford). She was 26. As a minor, Shakespeare required his father’s permission to marry. • There is no documentary record of Shakespeare’s activities between the birth of his twins and 1592. In 1592, Shakespeare is called an “upstart crow” by Robert Greene, a jealous writer.
This quote is important because it verified several facts about Shakespeare’s career as it developed by 1592: • He had become famous enough to rankle Greene’s jealousy. • He had become part of the professional theatre world in London. • He was known as a man with various abilities (actor, playwright, and play reviser). • He was recognized as a skilled poet.
The years 1594 – 1599 were momentous for Shakespeare. In addition to creating a steady stream of plays, he continued as a principal actor and manager of an acting company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. As a result, he prospered financially and later became a part owner in the most prestigious public theatre, the Globe.
In 1596, Shakespeare’s family was granted a coat of arms, an Elizabethan status symbol. The motto was “Non Sans Droit” – not without right. The crest is a falcon shaking a spear.
In 1603, Queen Elizabeth dies and James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England.
Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 and was buried at Holy Trinity Church. His epitaph reads – “GOOD FRIEND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE, TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOSAED HEARE. BLESTE BE YE MAN YT SPARES THESE STONES, AND CURST BE HE TY MOVES MY BONES. “
Shakespeare had good reason to include this inscription over his grave. During the Renaissance, when a burial ground became overcrowded, it was common practice for gravediggers to empty old graves and dump the remains to make way for new corpses. • No one knows how Shakespeare died; the nature of his illness is unknown.
Did Shakespeare write his own plays and poems? • The most obvious evidence that Shakespeare wrote the works attributed to him is that everyone at the time said he did. He was often praised in writing as a poet and playwright. Further, he was named as the author of many of the works while he was alive. Finally, seven years after his death, the First Folio explicitly attributed the rest of the works to him.
Who else could have been the author? • Oxfordians claim that the man from Stratford was “William Shakesper (or “Shakespere”), a man whose name was spelled and pronounced differently from that of the great poet “William Shakespeare.” • Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford have also been given credit for various reasons and evidence.
Shakespeare’s source for Macbeth The primary source for Macbeth was Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, first published in 1577.
The REAL Macbeth Lineage • Macbeth was the king's given name, rather than a 'son of' family name. • It derives from the Gaelic mac beatha meaning 'son of life'. • His lineage can be traced back through three and a half centuries to the Cenel Loairn (clan of Loarn) of Dalraida.
Contrary to Shakespeare's depiction, there was no suggestion that Macbeth was a usurper or a murderer until three hundred years after his death. • The first history to disparage his succession is John Fordun's Chronicle written in the fourteenth century. • In fact, Macbeth's claim on the throne was at least as valid as Duncan's. The charge of murder is first leveled in Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, also dating from the fourteenth century.
The REAL Lady Macbeth • When Shakespeare wrote his play, he was dependent upon the only sources available to him - Raphael Holinshed's Chronicle of Scotland (1580s) and John Bellenden's translation of Hector Boerce's History and Chronicles of Scotland (1536). Unfortunately, this work is now regarded as largely fiction. • It was Boerce who invented the character of 'Lady Macbeth', refined by Shakespeare into his 'fiend-like queen'.
Macbeth's historical wife was Gruoch, who was either a niece of Malcolm II or a granddaughter of Kenneth III. • Gruoch was born of a royal line at odds with Malcolm and presumably the house of Dunkeld, where he had designated his succession. • She also had reason for hostility towards Macbeth, since she had earlier been the wife of Gillacomgain, burned to death by Macbeth or his followers. • The marriage took place before Macbeth's succession and was most likely a political union, designed to bring peace between the contending kindreds of Moray.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth • Shakespeare wrote the play Macbeth in 1606 - three years after the union of the Crowns of Scotland and England under James VI and I, of the Scottish Stuart family. • Shakespeare put a contemporary 'spin' on Holinshed's version in the Chronicles (published in 1578), making Macbeth the villain in order to flatter the new king.
The 3 Witches • In addition, King James was obsessed with the occult in general and witches in particular, and it has been suggested that he insisted on the presence of witches in the play. • The “Weird Sisters” (Shakespeare meant “wyrd” – fate and destiny.
Duncan • Duncan was not the wise and gentle old man depicted by the Bard. He held his throne for only six years, getting involved in the treacherous Anglo-Norse politics of Northumbria and hence presiding over various unsuccessful campaigns in England.
The Curse of Macbeth • The "Curse of Macbeth" is the misfortune that happens during the production of the play. • The theory goes that Shakespeare included actual black magic spells in the incantations of the weird sisters. Those who appear in the play or those who mention the play's name within the confines of a theatre risk having these evils brought down on their heads.
The tragedy of Macbeth is considered so unlucky that it is hardly ever called by name inside the profession. • People refer to the play as "that play”, “the unmentionable" or "the Scottish play." • It is supposed to be bad luck to quote from the play or to use any sets, costumes, or props from a production. • The play partly acquired its evil reputation because of the weird sisters and partly because tradition traces a long line of disasters back to its premier on August 7, 1606.
Macbeth’s past • The boy actor playing Lady Macbeth died back stage on opening night. • In 1934, four actors played Macbeth in a single week. • In one production of Macbeth, nothing went wrong until the fight scene between Macbeth and Macduff. • Both actors had round "Celtic-style" shields strapped to their forearms of their left arms. The fight was very physical. • The actor playing Macbeth made a violent move with his left arm and the shield left his arm and flew like a Frisbee for twenty feet across the stage. • The actor playing Macduff ducked instinctively and the shield hit the ground about sixteen inches from the front of the stage. Sitting in the front row, directly opposite the shield sat two nuns.
The superstition is not so much about doing the play as about naming it. • You are not supposed to mention the title in a theatre. • The most interesting theory is that the play contains the devil in the form of the porter. (does this work if he says he answers the door in the name of Beelzebub?)
The Remedy for the Curse • The most common remedy to get rid of the curse is that the offender must step outside, turn around three times, spit, and say the foulest word he/she can think of, and wait for permission to re-enter the theatre.
Theatre in England • Drama in England started as plays being performed for the church on religious subjects (i.e. Resurrection of Christ) • Subject matter in theatre expanded to also include morality stories (more character-based instead of biblical) • With the Renaissance, came a new interest in creating a venue for theatre (playhouses).
Playhouses in London • To avoid the authorities, several playhouses moved across the Thames to neighborhoods not controlled by London laws. (i.e. Southwark) • The subject matter of some plays was sometimes seen as inappropriate. Moving the theatres gave more liberty to the playwrights.
Shakespeare’s Globe • an open-air public theatre constructed from remnants of the Theatre, which had recently been demolished. • 3 main parts: • The building proper (seating located here) • The stage • The Tiring house (backstage area)
“The Building Proper” The building could hold approx. 3000 spectators. • For one penny, a person could stand in the “yard” to watch the performance. • For a little more, patrons could go up into the galleries of the theatre for a better view. • The most expensive seats were chairs set right on the stage along its two sides.
The seats were • set up “stadium- • style, and they • became larger the farther back you went. • During a performance on Henry VIII, a cannon fired to announce the • king’s entrance caught the thatch roof on fire. The theatre did not • reopen for a year. Luckily no one was seriously injured…fortunate • since there were only 2 exits. (One story does say that one man was • injured because he used ale to put out his burning britches.
The Stage • jutted halfway out into the yard, so the actors were in much closer contact with the audience • There was a trapdoor in the ceiling and floor of the stage to allow for objects to be lowered on or off stage. • The area below the stage was known as “Hell.” • The ceiling was painted with sun, moons, and stars to represent the “Heavens.”
Tiring House • contained machinery and dressing rooms • A connected gallery above allowed for musicians and even spectators.
Elizabethan Advertising • Above the hut (above the tiring house) was a small tower with a flag pole. Flags were erected on the day of the performance which sometimes displayed a picture advertising the next play to be performed. • Color coding was also used: - a black flag meant a tragedy , white a comedy and red a history.
Props • If a character carried a lantern, it was meant to represent night (plays had to be performed during the day for lighting) • For a forest setting, a few bushes and small trees might be put on stage.
Indoor Theatres • Blackfriars, owned by Shakespeare’s company, was one of several indoor theatres in London. • The benefit to an indoor theatre was that actors could perform regardless of the hour or weather.
PLAGUE! • There were constant outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague and every time this occurred the Theatres were shut down. The closures occurred in 1593 , 1603 and 1608 • In 1563, in London alone, over 20,000 people died of the disease - In 1665 the Great Plague of London again decimated the population of the town which killed 16% of the inhabitants (17,500 out of the population of 93,000) • From December 1592 until December 1593 Stow (the Elizabethan archivist) reported 10,675 plague deaths in London, a city of approximately 200,000 people
