Before Getting Started

1. Before Getting Started If absent of block day: Complete Act 1 Activity (handed out Tuesday). Due Monday. If you have not turned in your study guide for Act 1 turn it into the appropriate box. Get out a piece of paper -Put your proper MLA heading on it - Title Macbeth Act 1 Quiz -Number 1-13 on left hand side -Number 14-25 down the middle

2. THE DULLEST PENCIL RECORDS WHAT THE SHARPEST MIND FORGETS!!

3. Shakespeare and the Cursed Play Background

4. Shakespeare Born 1563 (maybe April 23) Stratford-on-Avon, England wrote 36-38 plays All known copies of Shakespeare’s plays were transcribed. --- It is believed that some plays attributed to the “Bard of Avon” were actually written by others. 154 sonnets 2 long narrative poems started his career as an actor (c. 1595)

5. Shakespeare Continued Shakespeare started his theater life out on the stage. After his writing career took off he would still occasionally take to the stage. Including in the first performance of Macbeth. Part and co-founder of Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later called The King’s Men under King James) 1599-Co-founder of the Globe Theater where most of his plays were performed-still stands today None of his plays were officially PUBLISHED during his life (1623) Died April 23, 1616 at home in Stratford-on-Avon.

7. Shakespeare wrote: Comedies (beginning) Histories (middle) Tragedies (middle-end)

9. Macbeth Holinshed'sChronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland Macbeth was a real king of Scotland He did kill King Duncan Reigned from 1040-1057 Unlike the Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play The real Macbeth had a legitimate claim to the throne The real Macbeth was a strong leader The real Macbeth’s reign was successful

10. Macbeth Written by William Shakespeare between 1603-1606 (with the first public mention of the play in 1611) The Gunpowder Plot of 1605was a backdrop for play This was Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy. It was written for King James I who had a short attention span (think ADHD) Shakespeare wrote Macbeth at the beginning of King James I reign Before James succeeded Elizabeth I he was king of Scotland During the play James was shown as a descendant of Banquo. Act 1, Scene 3, Line 67-68 “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.”

11. Banquo: The Begetter of Kings In Holinshed'sChronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, Banquo, instead of being loyal to the king, is an accomplice to Mac Bethad mac Findlaích's (Macbeth's) murder of Donnchad mac Crínáin (King Duncan) and plays an important part in ensuring that Macbeth, not Máel Coluim mac Donnchada (Malcolm), takes the throne in the coup that follows. Shakespeare may have changed this aspect of his character in order to please King James I, who was thought at the time to be a descendant of the real Banquo.

12. James I Was the patron to Shakespeare’s players (The King’s Men). Shakespeare didn’t want to anger the hand that fed him. Protestant-Was strict in his faith which included beliefs in supernatural influences & God upon human affairs Very superstitions man He wrote an 80 page book about witches entitled Demonologie Believed in witches and daemons as agents of the devil Witches and daemons were sent by God to test mankind. Man’s decisions based off the test dictated their fate.

13. READER BEWARE!!

14. The Cursed Play King James I just had to be right!! From opening night to present day the play Macbeth has been CURSED! 400 (+) YEARS!! TURN TO PAGE 400 Practicing witches during Shakespeare’s time were not happy to see their secret activities on stage. They placed an eternal, unbreakable curse on the play. Mention the name of the Cursed Play in a theater and the withes’ revenge will befall you.

15. The Curse Enacted During the first performance of Macbeth, William Shakespeare himself was forced to play Lady Macbeth when the boy designated to play her suddenly became overcome with sickness and died. King James was so displeased with the play that it was banned for five years. In Amsterdam in 1672, the actor playing Macbeth substituted the blunt stage dagger with a real one, and killed his co-actor playing Duncan right in front of the live audience. In 1721 the army had to be called in during a performance because of hecklers. The actors responded by attacking the hecklers with their swords. During its 1849 performance at New York's Astor Place, 31 people were trampled to death in a riot that broke out. In 1934, British actor Malcolm Keen turned mute on stage, and his replacement developed a high fever and had to be hospitalized. In 1937, a 25 pound stage weight crashed within an inch of Laurence Olivier (who was playing Macbeth. Olivier’s sword then broke on stage flew into the audience, hitting a man who later suffered a fatal heart attack. And if you think that was enough bad luck for one production, think again. Both the director and the actress playing Lady Macduff were involved in a car accident on the way to the theater, and the proprietor of the theater died of a heart attack during a dress rehearsal. In the 1942, three actors died, and the costume and set designer committed suicide. In Bermuda, 1953, Charlton Heston suffered severe burns in his groin and leg from tights that were accidentally soaked in kerosene. two fires and seven robberies plagued a 1971 stage version In case you thought the curse was just enacted within the theater: it was Macbeth that Abraham Lincoln chose to take with him on board the River Queen. The president read several passages to his friends during the trip. Within a week, President Lincoln himself was assassinated. WILL YOU BE NEXT???

16. "Good Friends, for Jesus' sake forbear,To dig the bones enclosed here!Blest be the man that spares these stones,And curst be he that moves my bones."