William Shakespeare's Macbeth: A Routledge Study Guide and Sourcebook

by Leggatt; Alexander

• ISBN13: 9780415238250
• ISBN10: 0415238250
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2006-02-10
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

William Shakespeare's Macbethis a timeless tale of love, greed and power, which has given rise to heated debates around such issues as the representation of gender roles, political violence and the dramatisation of evil. Taking the form of a sourcebook, this guide to Shakespeare's play presents:* extensive introductory comment on the contexts, critical history and performance of the text, from publication to present* annotated extracts from key contextual documents, reviews, critical works and the text itself* cross-references between documents and sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism* suggestions for further reading.Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of Macbeth and seeking not only a guide to the play, but a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds Shakespeare's text.

Author Biography

Alexander Leggatt is Professor of English at University College, University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Editor's Note	xii
Acknowledgements	xiii
Introduction	1	(6)
Contexts
Contextual Overview	7	(5)
Chronology	12	(3)
Source	15	(10)
From Raphael Holinshed, The Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Ireland (1587)	15	(10)
Contemporary Documents	25	(14)
From Newes from Scotland (1591)	25	(3)
From William Shakespeare, Henry VI Part One (c. 1590)	28	(2)
From James VI and I, Basilicon Doron (1599)	30	(2)
From Thomas Dekker, John Ford and William Rowley, The Witch of Edmonton (1621)	32	(7)
Interpretations
Critical History	39	(5)
Early Critical Reception	44	(14)
From Samuel Johnson, Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of `Macbeth': with Remarks on Sir T. H.'s Edition of Shakespeare (1745)	44	(1)
From Arthur Murphy, `Criticism on the Tragedy of Macbeth' (1753)	45	(1)
From Elizabeth Montagu, An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare (1769)	46	(3)
From Francis Gentleman, The Dramatic Censor; or, Critical Companion (1770)	49	(5)
From Thomas De Quincey, `On the Knocking on the Gate in ``Macbeth''' (1823)	54	(1)
From A. C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth (1904)	54	(4)
Modern Criticism	58	(31)
From L. C. Knights, `How Many Children Had Lady Macbeth? An Essay in the Theory and Practice of Shakespeare Criticism' (1933)	58	(3)
From Cleanth Brooks, The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry (1947)	61	(4)
From Joan Holloway, The Story of the Night: Studies in Shakespeare's Major Tragedies (1961)	65	(3)
From Joan Larsen Klein, `Lady Macbeth: ``Infirm of Purpose'' (1980)	68	(3)
From Jenijoy La Belle,' ```A Strange Infirmity'': Lady Macbeth's Amenorrhea' (1980)	71	(3)
From Stephen Booth, King Lear, Macbeth, Indefinition, and Tragedy (1983)	74	(1)
From Barbara Everett, Young Hamlet: Essays on Shakespeare's Tragedies (1989)	75	(2)
From Harriett Hawkins, Classics and Trash: Traditions and Taboos in High Literature and Popular Modern Genres (1990)	77	(1)
From Janet Adelman, Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origin in Shakespeare's Plays, Hamlet to The Tempest (1992)	78	(5)
From Stephen Greenblatt, `Shakespeare Bewitched' (1994)	83	(3)
From David Scott Kastan, Shakespeare after Theory (1999)	86	(3)
The Work in Performance	89	(34)
Introduction	89	(5)
Performance	94	(1)
From Simon Forman, The Book of Plays and Notes thereof per Forman for Common Policy (1611)	94	(2)
From Peter Thomson, Shakespeare's Theatre (1983)	96	(4)
From Sir William D'Avenant, Macbeth a Tragedy. With all the Alterations, Amendments, Additions and New Songs (1664)	100	(6)
From David Garrick's adaptation of Macbeth (1744)	106	(1)
From Kennett Tynan, Curtains (1961)	107	(2)
From James Goodwin, Akira Kurosawa and Intertextual Cinema (1994)	109	(2)
From Kenneth S. Rothwell, A History of Shakespeare on Screen: a Century of Film and Television (1999)	111	(2)
Marion D. Perret, `Double, Double: Trevor Nunn's Macbeth for Television' (1992)	113	(3)
From Sinead Cusack with Carol Rutter, `Lady Macbeth's Barren Sceptre', in Carol Rutter et al., Clamorous Voices: Shakespeare's Women Today (1989)	116	(3)
From Derek Jacobi, `Macbeth', in Robert Smallwood, ed., Players of Shakespeare 4 (1998)	119	(4)
Key Passages
Introduction	123	(3)
Summary of the Action	124	(1)
The Characters	125	(1)
Key Passages	126	(69)
Act 1, Scene 1: The witches	126	(2)
Act 1, Scene 2: Rebellion and enemy invasion; Macbeth as war hero	128	(4)
Act 1, Scene 3: Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches	132	(7)
Act 1, Scene 5: Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth's letter, and prepares to urge him to murder	139	(4)
Act 1, Scene 7: Macbeth hesitates; Lady Macbeth breaks his reluctance	143	(5)
Act 2, Scene 1, lines 33--64: Macbeth sees `a dagger of the mind'	148	(2)
Act 2, Scene 2: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth react to the murder	150	(5)
Act 3, Scene 4: The banquet; Banquo's ghost	155	(7)
Act 4, Scene 1: The witches' cauldron; the riddling prophecies	162	(9)
Act 4, Scene 2: Lady Macduff and her son	171	(4)
Act 4, Scene 3, lines 139--73: Edward the Confessor and Macbeth: a good king and a tyrant	175	(2)
Act 5, Scene 1: Lady Macbeth sleepwalks	177	(4)
Act 5, Scene 5: Macbeth hears of the death of Lady Macbeth	181	(8)
Further Reading
Recommended Editions of Macbeth	189	(1)
Contexts	189	(1)
The Play in Performance	190	(1)
Film Versions	191	(1)
Criticism	191	(4)
Index	195