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Hello, and welcome to the Bard with Bill.
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This episode we're marching off into the murky Merlin's of old Oliver, better known as Scotland to the English speakers. That's right, we're boldly taking on the Scottish play itself. If you're interested in finding out what's humorous about phlegm, whether the title character is a redhead, or how the leading couple makes an immensely satisfying graph, friends, lend me your ears. And join me if you then for Episode Six. Look.
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Hello, Agus Fulcher, guten.
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Barclay bill. No, you don't need to adjust to a device. And that's not some bizarre piece of obscure Shakespearean text. It's Scottish Gallic for Hello, and welcome to the Bard with Bill.
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If you are a Gallic speaker and my pronunciation makes you feel a little murdery. This includes my own mother who helped me to add the translations for this episode, then, honey Dooley, I'm sorry. Now before we even get started with the language lounge section of the podcast, let's address the tartan elephant in the room. This player has a lot of superstition attached to it that's built up over the centuries. Theatrefolk can be a singularly superstitious bunch for many reasons. It can be a very high stress environment, where people leave themselves open to the mercy of the unknown, every time the curtain goes up. They're also continuously weaving illusion and creating stories to make the everyday seem exhilarating, and dramatic. The Scottish play itself is full of superstition, destiny and mishap. Some have even suggested that the incantations in the play have an earthly power all of their own.
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beyond the scope of the theatrical, it makes semantic sense for this play to have a pall of dread associated, it would be a very different story if there were a deadly fear of the comedy of errors for example, or an unspeakable terror the mere mention of the Merry Wives of Windsor. But there are also several more grounded factors that have contributed to the plays noxious reputation over the years. It's got the potential to be quite physically dangerous. There are blades everywhere, daggers being furtively yanked about in heightened state of excitement, big old sword fights in desperate scuffles. It's also quite a dark play, and not just in tone. Two thirds of the action is supposed to take place during the hours of night. And this effect can be achieved in indoor spaces, like the Blackfriars theatre, that Shakespeare leased in partnership with his co sharers in the King's Men Theatre Company. Badly or unlit stages are a recipe for total disaster, as any stage manager will be able to tell you. There's also a set theory that suggests that this particular play was often used by struggling theatre companies in a last ditch resort when they found themselves in dire financial straits. The Scottish play has always been popular with audiences, and so it was seen as a safe bit of programming. Although this did mean that if you were a company member, and you started to hear the name, Mac, being whispered backstage, it may have heralded the impending demise of your Theatre Company. So, armed with this information, whether you are a believer or a cynic, feel free to take a moment to perform whatever piece of ritual you feel you need to do, before we press on with Macbeth. Now, some say it's only really bad like to say the name in the theater space. Unfortunately for the handle bards, they perform everywhere and anywhere, castles to car parks, tree houses, rooftops, floating museums, all the world really is a stage for the handlebars, which means a little bit of extra caution is needed when discussing matters into the language lounge we go.
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There are many phrases in Macbeth that we use to this day, and bearing in mind the popularity of this play that I mentioned earlier, I'm reminded of a question I put out there right at the start of this podcast in the Romeo and Juliet episode. have we taken on more phrases from Shakespeare's popular plays, because they're good phrases or just because people are Come into more contact with them because the play is popular. Well, while you're pondering this, why not have a go at illustrating some of these more graphic dramatic phrases and if you fancy, post them to the handlebars Twitter using the hashtag Bard with Bill.
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Now you might be familiar with these phrases like a sorry sight, and they'll be all in the end all. These are both to be found in Macbeth, but I won't be dwelling on them because frankly, they're pretty self explanatory, and they don't conjure any really visceral images in the minds I know. I'm far more enticed with this phrase, a charmed life. We use this today to mean a life characterized by good fortune or blessed with success. A life without any problems or difficulties. Seems like a very positive phrase, which is curious, since it comes to us from Macbeth himself, when he seems to be at his most monstrous, cutting through his enemies like sheaves of wheat.
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He says, I bear a charmed life which must not yield to one of women born. The word charm originally meant a spoken or sung magical incantation, which over the years evolved into these meanings associated with beguiling or winning people over but Macbeth clearly uses it with his spoken spell meaning in mind, in Macbeth, the spell takes the form of a prophetic incantation. Now, whenever I hear someone talk about leaving a charmed life, I find myself wondering none about the supposedly blessed person, but who might have spoken that charm on their behalf. What were their motives? Warning, spending any time at all with Macbeth can certainly lead to a more suspicious mindset. Now, have you ever accused someone of being Lily livered? The phrase means cowardly, and it's used in the play moment, Beth when he talks to an unfortunate servant, go prick my face and over red dye fear that Lily livered boy.
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This phrase seems to be Shakespeare's own creation, which tracks since it's clear, he loves his alliteration, Lily livered with that profusion of liquid ELLs actually requires a fair bit of articulation to make the sounds distinct. So where does the cowardly bit come in?
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Well, it's all linked to this ancient medical theory known as the four humors. That was still considered sound in Shakespeare's day. This theory held that the human body contained four humors, or liquids that affected people both physically and mentally.
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The humans were blood, phlegm, black bile, and the yellow bile.
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Each humor was responsible for different emotions, and an imbalance could could affect a person's personality. It's a really fun and wacky theory that I absolutely recommend you look into if you haven't heard of it before, and it makes its way into many other Shakespearean moments. But today, we are concerned with one human in particular, yellow bile, also known as color spelled ch o l.
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e. r, an excess of color was thought to make a person irritable, angry and warlike. We might describe someone who inhabits these traits as being of a choleric disposition.
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Renaissance anatomy held that collar was associated perhaps even produced in the liver. So therefore, if a person wasn't filled with a warlike aggressive nature, it meant their liver wasn't producing enough color.
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It wouldn't appear this raging yellow color, it would look pale and weak. Now a yellow liver indicating a pugnacious nature seems a bit strange to us today, because in the centuries since Shakespeare was writing, yellow has assumed this cowardly connection. But for the Bard, the color of cowardice, was a pale white color, like a delicate Lily. This is also seen in the lines before Lily livered is even used to describe the servants frightened face. The devil damn the black thou cream faced Loon. Throughout the play, Macbeth rejects the light in favor of the shadows. Stars hide your fires, he says, Let not night see my black and deep desires. By the end, he dismisses pale light colors as being cowardly. The only color Macbeth seems to want to see at this point is the color red. And finally, this phrase, one fell swoop. We use it to mean all in one go usually with a note of decisive finality. This phrase is used by Macduff when he learns the murder of his wife and children. All my pretty ones did you say all Oh hell, Kate, all what all my pretty chickens and they damn at one fell swoop.
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This moment in the play is absolutely heartbreaking. It interrupts a scene of relative safety and peace in comparison to the rest of the play, and Macduff and Malcolm, are probably at the happiest, most hopeful point we ever see any of the characters reach. But then this news comes, and the buoyant moment of Hope is ripped away from us. The way Macduff keeps asking whether all his children are dead, he repeats the word all four times, really snags at my heartstrings, and to moment that feels distressingly real.
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And when an actor nails that you can feel this charge in the air, you feel sick and taut and grief stricken all at once. But back to the phrase, we're looking at one fell swoop. The word fell here is used with the meaning to be cruel and vicious. It likely came into the English language from France. And before that, the Latin word fellow meaning villain, we get the word felon from the same root. The swoop bit ends the larger image Shakespeare has created with this speech. He presents a hell Kate, a devilish bird of prey and refers to mcdonoughs wife and children as though there were a hen with her chicks. The final image is one of terrible and almost implausible savagery, a bird of prey managing to slaughter the whole clutch of chicks along with their mother in a single attack dive. One swoop, it's brutal. Now, as is becoming alarmingly clear, this play is not filled with sunshine and lollipops. But it is filled with a story that I'm constantly drawn back to. And who better to lead us through this tale than the three intrepid handle bards who are about to tour a production this very summer.
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Katherine Perkins, Jenny Smith, and Natalie Simone will be leading us through the entire plot of Macbeth, in under two minutes. It's our first short and snappy synopsize Shakespeare colab and I'm sure they're gonna name it. So Break a leg bards, Your time starts now.
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The play opens with Macbeth and Banquo being greeted by three witches. They prophesized that Macbeth is going to be fain of gloms quarter, and eventually King bancos children will be king. I like the sound of that. He finds out that his vein of glands and corridor and believes he could be king, Lady Macbeth receives a letter from hackers and she takes the reins on this mission.
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Duncan the king goes to congratulate Macbeth on his title and stays with him and Lady Macbeth comes up fruition and they successfully kill the king. Macbeth starts to get paranoid about Langford his prophecy says another evil plan were killed Banquo he gets to murder has to do with the deeds for DinDin she sees bancos ghost goes completely do. Macbeth decided he wants to go back to the witches To find out more information. What's going on? He is told that no man that is born of a woman can kill him. So he thinks Macduff isn't a threat.
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But just to be safe. He's gonna kill him anyway.
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Lies during lunch so Macbeth kills his family. Witches also say that he should feel would approve, uprooting and coming towards him.
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He says this is impossible. Oh my touchable. Then the jumping revenge starts a war against Macbeth and sneaks upon Macbeth's castle disguised as a woodland and the terrain.
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Macbeth sees the wood moving towards his castle and he panics big sigh mugdock. Tough is a C section baby.
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And Kant says Malcolm is king.
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And
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many, many, many thanks, Catherine, Jenny, and Natalie. I very much look forward to seeing how you'll bring the story to life on the stage. So do you think you know your Macbeth's from your mcdonoughs let's dive in.
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So, the Scottish play? Why Scotland? Why this story? Where does it come from? As I mentioned earlier, by the time this play was written, Shakespeare's Theatre Company had changed names from the Lord Chamberlain's men to the king's men. After George Carey, the Lord Chamberlain stepped down as patron to allow the New King James the first to take over.
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Now Jimmy, the first of England was also Jimmy the sixth of Scotland, and as such, it seems likely that this partly influenced the decision to create a play set in his mother country. elements of the play was certainly included to appeal specifically to the king. James claim descent from the historical Banquo. And so the inclusion of this character in the play in the prophecy that tells of his line becoming kings, which certainly appeal.
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The play also ends with this call to unity, peace and friendship between Scotland and England under a rightful monarch, which reflects the social and political environment of Britain in the early 17th century, when this play was first proton, then there's also the matter of witchcraft and magic. We'll explore King Jimmy's fascination with that a little later. As I said, King James supposedly traced dissent from Banquo, who at the time was considered a real historical figure, but what about the rest?
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Many of the characters in Macbeth are actually based on real people. King Duncan and his son Malcolm Earle seaward of Northumbria, and Edward the Confessor, the Saxon King of England, who is only ever mentioned in the play. We're all real historical figures, as was Macbeth, or to give him his full Gallic title, MK Baha McCune, look in the re jerk, which can be anglicised to Macbeth MK Finley, the Red King, the Red King, or what an ominous nickname. Shakespeare's Macbeth could certainly be described as a Red King from the sheer amount of blood he's responsible for spilling, but it actually seems like this title, the Red King, were referred to the real Macbeth's head of golden red hair. Now there's another rather tasty tidbit with Macbeth's name. You may have noticed that Scottish and Irish names have a lot of Max in them. This is because these names were originally patronymic names, which means they described who someone's father was. This isn't a practice confined to Scotland and Ireland, we said all over the world. In English we have names like Johnson, son of john, in Scandinavia, find names like Spencer or Harold's dotted Hebrew names might start with a band or a bat, while Iberian names might end in s or s.
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Abramovich Kardashian. These are all patronymics. So Macbeth MK Finley is Macbeth, son of Finley. But bill isn't Macbeth, another patronymic? Yes, but this one isn't literal. Any whiskey drinkers out amongst you might know that the word whiskey comes from the Gallic usco Baha, which means water of life. mk Baha therefore translates to son of life, a name filled with hope and promise. How darkly ironic then, that it became the name of one of literature's most prominent murderers. Shakespeare got the story of Macbeth, from a text known as Hollins heads chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, published in 1577 500 years after the events surrounding the reign of the real Macbeth. It's a sprawling three volume work that seeks to contain the entire history of these three countries. Macbeth isn't the only play that the Chronicles might have influenced. There are also the seeds for King Lear and symbolising included, and Christopher Marlowe and Edmund Spenser are also believed to have drawn inspiration from it.
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The Chronicles aren't known for the historical accuracy, however, and Shakespeare was even more liberal with his interpretation.
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Historically, Macbeth was an 11th century king of Mori, situated in the highlands. He then became King of Scotland, when the current King Duncan led an attack on macbeths lands and was defeated and killed in the battle. So historically, Duncan appears to be the aggressor in the story, not a murderous married pair of macbeths.
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Macbeth was then elected King from among the Lords of Scotland, and that seems to be no contemporary accounts of his role being particularly tyrannous. Eventually, he is believed to have been defeated in battle by Malcolm some of Duncan, who would go on to become Malcolm the third, Malcolm canmore. Now hollinshead Chronicles tell a different story, which is much closer to what Shakespeare would eventually write. Although the attitude towards characters does change somewhat hollinshead Banquo assists Macbeth in the murder of Duncan, it's understandable why Shakespeare would want to edit that particular detail. Given his patron the king's connection to Banquo. He also changes the character of Duncan from a young king with no noticeable character traits to an old king who oozes goodness from every royal pour
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if you're enjoying this podcast, and please remember to subscribe and leave us a glowing five star review so that we can reach out Even more people if you're really enjoying our podcast, why not consider donating to the handlebars outreach program@www.handlebars.com forward slash donate your donation we'll break down the barriers to creative expression by providing online workshops led by the handle bards to everyone and anyone who wants to enjoy them. If you'd like to see one of the 100 bugs shows, then head over to the handle Barb's dot
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tickets to find out when the recycling event.
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Shakespeare does decide to keep one particular element from hollinshead Chronicle that has become one of the most recognizable plots in the play.
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hollinshead describes a meeting between Macbeth, Banquo and three women clothed in quote, strange and surly apparel resembling creatures of the elder world. They announced a series of prophecies regarding the two warriors and their fortunes. You'll recognize these characters as the inspiration for Shakespeare's weird sisters.
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But most people call them the witches.
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Let's talk witches. The Witches three double double toil and trouble if you ask someone which springs to mind when they say Macbeth, they're most likely to say murder Scotland or witches.
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And it isn't hard to see why.
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These three characters are dramatic, standout characters, not only in this play, but in all of Shakespeare. I mean, yes, we see prophecy and destiny and other plays from soothsayers and ghostly apparitions and dreams.
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But nowhere do we see the agents of fate so prominently presented. Act one scene one is very short, but it catapults us into a meeting between the three sisters who set the scene for us in a beautifully comprehensive, yet really nicely succinct piece of exposition. We know it's stormy, the Sun is setting it's a Heath battle is about to finish. We're now in a world of bleak dark bloodshed. Excellent cheers, ladies. They go from being our first taste of the play to being the key drivers of the plot. Their prophecies set in motion the wonderfully agonizing tragic arc we witness, and they're a constant source of questions and speculation regarding the nature of destiny.
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And this word, Destiny, I think, is key to how these characters are perceived. In hollinshead Chronicles, the three women are presented as supernatural characters from a past age, fairies, nymphs or even goddesses. The Chronicles are reaching way back into the mists of times for these figures, beyond the ordered frontiers of history and into the murky marches of myth. Now many cultures around the world have divine triads, but we're concerned with a specific type of trio goddesses of destiny.
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The ancient Greeks called these three, the more AI and they presided over fate in a very tactile way. klotho spins together threads to create a person's life. Lucky sis measures the thread and weaves its pattern. And finally atropos cuts the thread bringing an end to the life if we voyage up north, closer to the world of Macbeth, we have a similar trio of fate goddesses known to the Scandinavians as the norns word for Tandy and schooled who preside over the past, the present and the future. Now, it's believed that none of these faithful ladies were actively worshipped. Instead, they were considered forces of nature, implacable and inescapable, like gravity. And this is partly how the sisters are presented to us in the play. Every prophecy they give comes to pass, which is partly why this play is such a satisfying journey. We're given the bare bones of events that will happen and then we delight in seeing exactly how they play out. But despite fulfilling a very important public service broadcast roll, these ladies are not considered friendly in the play or even have an otherworldly neutrality. They are definitely portrayed as bad.
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Macbeth call to them secret black and midnight hags. Banquo says they are withered and wild in their attire, that they have Chappie fingers skinny lips and beards. They're constantly described as powers of darkness.
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So why this change from three mystical ladies met on a lonesome road to three that look evil and behave even more. So.
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Partly, this could be Shakespeare just using up the story to make it seem edgier.
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But we also have to turn back to King Jimmy Shakespeare's patron at the time. James Stewart had many fascination And one of these was witchcraft. He himself presided over North barrack witch trials of 1590. West between 70 to 200. People were implicated in witchcraft. The King even published a book on evil magic and those who practice it called demonology.
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In it, the king describe the activities which is get up to, and Shakespeare has his three sisters discussed their doings, as though they were quoting directly from the king's book.
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They killed swine, cause shipwrecks and drain men of their life essence. Then there are the latest scenes where the character of equity or hecate, the demonic mistress of the sisters is introduced. hecate was an ancient Greek goddess of many mysterious things magic, the moon snakes crossroads, and interestingly, she herself was often depicted as a triple aspect goddess, sometimes with three heads. hecate is usually cut from the modern productions for various reasons. And sort of detracts from the agency and menace of the three sisters to have another power above them.
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But also, she can be entirely removed from the plot without affecting it at all. This leads many to believe that certain scenes and parts and Macbeth involving the witches may have been added by a playwright called Thomas Middleton, who also wrote a play in titled The witch.
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With all this talk of witches, it should be said that the word which is only ever used once in the play to describe the sisters, and that is by one of the three herself when she is describing how someone called her a witch. Otherwise, they're described simply as the sisters or the weird sisters. Now, the word weird, wouldn't have had quite the same meaning for Shakespeare's audience as we give it today. Shakespeare could have intended for it to have a sort of double meanings since his belief the word would have been pronounced something like wayward, which sounds like a contraction of way would to mean deviating from the right way.
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Weird also has an older meaning, and that was to describe fate.
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It was used as a noun rather than an adjective. If someone was talking about their own personal destiny, they would talk about their weird. This ties the sisters back to hollinshead initial description of them as agents of destiny, and in an even neater cyclical rounding off. The word weird is set to derive from one of those Norse goddesses I mentioned earlier, ruled. So if you take anything from this rather extended which you ramble, I hope that it's the fact that the three sisters in Macbeth are far more than three evil ladies hanging around a cauldron. They have influences from many different sources, which makes them a treasure trove of possibility when considering how we might play them in performance. But it's not just the scary supernatural elements that make this play one of Shakespeare's most popular creations. It's one of the more accessible plays for audiences is relatively short and Pacey.
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The action hammers along with the Macbeth's clattering from one misdeed to the next until it all falls down around it is it's relentless. And that's something that's essential for both tragedy and comedy. If the characters have enough breathing space between events to settle down, and really consider what they're doing, they might unravel some of the faulty thought processes that are leading their Catterick characters actions, whether those are hilarious shenanigans of mistaken identity, or racking up a grisly body count. I also think Macbeth has this very finely wrought shape to it. The tragic structure is easy to follow and incredibly satisfying. We follow the eponymous characters rise to great heights, the greatest in the world of the play, and then we watch them descend until their final four. We observe events unfold and listen wrapped as the characters desperately work to adapt. It's this struggle that really affects us.
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Nobody wants to see a story about someone having everything they want dropped in their lap.
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But more than just a struggle.
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It's the fact that Shakespeare draws us in and allows us insight into why these characters are behaving in the way they're behaving through his use of soliloquy and argued dialogue. We might not agree with their actions, but we can understand why they're doing them with Shakespeare's other villains rich the third Jago donjon, Queen Margaret, we get delicious speeches that explain their desires, their frustrations and how they intend to remedy the situation. But unlike most of them, Macbeth wavers in questions himself, at least at the beginning. Some have said the only interesting thing to see or Here is the heart at war with itself. And in this way, Macbeth is more akin to Hamlet or Brutus. But unlike Hamlet, and more like Brutus, Macbeth isn't able to act alone.
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The plot requires the presence of another character to foster the change that is necessary for the tragedy to progress.
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The lady as she is often doting Lee called is a standout character and Shakespeare were first introduced to her as an individual, and were able to hear her own perspective, so that when Macbeth eventually joins her, we consider both these characters as unique characters yet united in their aims. This is what makes the scenes before and after Duncan's murder so fascinating. The characters are noticeably different people. And this divergence is what fuels the drama, it's enthralling to watch Lady Macbeth adapt and modify her tactics to encourage or embolden or reason with or shame her husband into achieving their objective. Just as it's enthralling to watch Macbeth threatened Buchan battle with himself over the doing the deed.
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This couple of my favorite character arc in the whole of Shakespeare. Imagine a graph with Lady m starting out of the top of the y axis, and maketh himself at the bottom. Lady m starts out steadfast calculating in control, while her husband is wracked with indecision, fear, and mania. The characters then start to draw together and they meet in the center around the moment of the murder or maybe maybe just after, this is when they are most in sync as a couple. From that moment onwards, Macbeth surges upwards with renewed focus, confidence and determination, making decisions on his own and pursuing an agenda that continues to drop the bodies.
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Lady Macbeth on the other hand, deteriorates. She loses control, she questions her husband until he leaves her out of his decisions entirely. He says be innocent to the knowledge there is Chuck. Finally, it is Lady Macbeth that is experiencing delusions in the form of her blood stained hands, and she becomes so distant from her husband, that we only hear her death reported, which prompt is stunned the existential monologue from Macbeth before the final, climactic, bloody battle. We cannot escape blood in this play. The first line from a human character is Duncan's. What bloody man is that referencing a wounded soldier. Throughout the play, we have these graphic descriptions of battle wounds and maiming and murder. The visions that the Macbeth's both experienced are drenched in blood. We've got the dagger Banquo Spectre, the damned spot. I adore the imagery Shakespeare compares the amount of blood spilt in this seater oceans know this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas in carnitine, making the green one red and then there's I am in blood stepped in so far that should I weighed no more returning were as tedious as go on. But there's other rivers of blood running through this play.
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And that's in the more symbolic sense of bloodlines. Almost every major character we meet has a child. Duncan has Malcolm and Donald Bane. Banquo has flans Macduff has all his children. Even the old seaward has a son who dies at the hands of Macbeth. The leads, however, are childless. In her monologues Lady Macbeth reveals that she has breastfed a child before, but there is no other mention of this missing offspring in the rest of the play. It's this more than their conspiracy for the crown that sets the Macbeth's apart from the rest of the characters. When Macbeth considers the initial prophecy by the weird sisters, he rages that the crown will pass to the heirs of Banquo. Because they have no children. The Macbeth seemed to have no hope for the future, beyond a brutal tragic demise. At the end of the play, it is this eye to continuance for the future that is used to kindle a hopeful finish.
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I apologize if this episode has seemed a little steeped in gloom and horror, but Well, that's Macbeth for you. I also think there's moments in this play that are incredibly funny.
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There's the porters monologue, for instance, which is very ironic and darkly humorous. But then there's also the moment when Duncan's bodies discovered the macbeths are forced to put on masks of innocence and the result is almost farcical.
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Particularly when Macbeth has to justify why he killed the groom's he flails about until lady m puts a stop to it by affecting a swoon. The play is so deeply tragic, so overblown with violence and madness that it's actually very easy to lend itself towards a surreal sort of comedy, which is definitely good for the handlebars. And that's certainly what you can expect from a production of Macbeth by them. Macbeth doesn't need to be played as a tragic horror in the same way that the weird sisters don't need to be played as a misogynist portrayal of a stereotypical older woman, Macbeth, and all of Shakespeare, in fact, is like a rich, sumptuous haggis. Now hear me out on this one. It contains many different elements blended together. purists will insist it's done in a certain way. Some people are a little put off by it, and it certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea. It enjoys a hearty tradition that people love to celebrate time and time again. People have their own relationships with their own histories with it. People love to exchange their opinions on it, innovators come up with new and accessible ways for people to delight and experience it.
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It's meant to be enjoyed as a celebration. It's meant to be enjoyed with others. It's meant to bring people together.
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And so we reach the end of this run of the Bard with Bill. I'd like to raise a glass to everyone behind the scenes that have been very hard at work to bring this show to the airwaves.
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So solanco varki, you Tom poor guy and Lucy. Thank you also to the bards that gave their vocal talents to provide a whirlwind synopsis for every play we've explored so far. And, most importantly, thanks to you, dear friends, for lending me your
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This podcast is brought to you by the handlebars. Please remember to subscribe and leave a review. It was produced by Tom Dixon and Paul moss and researched and voiced by William Ross force it.
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It was introduced by me, Lucy green, and the music was created and performed by guy here. To find out more about the handlebars. Just head over to our website, handle bards.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to search at 100
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Hello, and welcome to the Bard with Bill.
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This episode we're marching off into the murky Merlin's of old Oliver, better known as Scotland to the English speakers. That's right, we're boldly taking on the Scottish play itself. If you're interested in finding out what's humorous about phlegm, whether the title character is a redhead, or how the leading couple makes an immensely satisfying graph, friends, lend me your ears. And join me if you then for Episode Six. Look.
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Hello, Agus Fulcher, guten.
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Barclay bill. No, you don't need to adjust to a device. And that's not some bizarre piece of obscure Shakespearean text. It's Scottish Gallic for Hello, and welcome to the Bard with Bill.
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If you are a Gallic speaker and my pronunciation makes you feel a little murdery. This includes my own mother who helped me to add the translations for this episode, then, honey Dooley, I'm sorry. Now before we even get started with the language lounge section of the podcast, let's address the tartan elephant in the room. This player has a lot of superstition attached to it that's built up over the centuries. Theatrefolk can be a singularly superstitious bunch for many reasons. It can be a very high stress environment, where people leave themselves open to the mercy of the unknown, every time the curtain goes up. They're also continuously weaving illusion and creating stories to make the everyday seem exhilarating, and dramatic. The Scottish play itself is full of superstition, destiny and mishap. Some have even suggested that the incantations in the play have an earthly power all of their own.
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beyond the scope of the theatrical, it makes semantic sense for this play to have a pall of dread associated, it would be a very different story if there were a deadly fear of the comedy of errors for example, or an unspeakable terror the mere mention of the Merry Wives of Windsor. But there are also several more grounded factors that have contributed to the plays noxious reputation over the years. It's got the potential to be quite physically dangerous. There are blades everywhere, daggers being furtively yanked about in heightened state of excitement, big old sword fights in desperate scuffles. It's also quite a dark play, and not just in tone. Two thirds of the action is supposed to take place during the hours of night. And this effect can be achieved in indoor spaces, like the Blackfriars theatre, that Shakespeare leased in partnership with his co sharers in the King's Men Theatre Company. Badly or unlit stages are a recipe for total disaster, as any stage manager will be able to tell you. There's also a set theory that suggests that this particular play was often used by struggling theatre companies in a last ditch resort when they found themselves in dire financial straits. The Scottish play has always been popular with audiences, and so it was seen as a safe bit of programming. Although this did mean that if you were a company member, and you started to hear the name, Mac, being whispered backstage, it may have heralded the impending demise of your Theatre Company. So, armed with this information, whether you are a believer or a cynic, feel free to take a moment to perform whatever piece of ritual you feel you need to do, before we press on with Macbeth. Now, some say it's only really bad like to say the name in the theater space. Unfortunately for the handle bards, they perform everywhere and anywhere, castles to car parks, tree houses, rooftops, floating museums, all the world really is a stage for the handlebars, which means a little bit of extra caution is needed when discussing matters into the language lounge we go.
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There are many phrases in Macbeth that we use to this day, and bearing in mind the popularity of this play that I mentioned earlier, I'm reminded of a question I put out there right at the start of this podcast in the Romeo and Juliet episode. have we taken on more phrases from Shakespeare's popular plays, because they're good phrases or just because people are Come into more contact with them because the play is popular. Well, while you're pondering this, why not have a go at illustrating some of these more graphic dramatic phrases and if you fancy, post them to the handlebars Twitter using the hashtag Bard with Bill.
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Now you might be familiar with these phrases like a sorry sight, and they'll be all in the end all. These are both to be found in Macbeth, but I won't be dwelling on them because frankly, they're pretty self explanatory, and they don't conjure any really visceral images in the minds I know. I'm far more enticed with this phrase, a charmed life. We use this today to mean a life characterized by good fortune or blessed with success. A life without any problems or difficulties. Seems like a very positive phrase, which is curious, since it comes to us from Macbeth himself, when he seems to be at his most monstrous, cutting through his enemies like sheaves of wheat.
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He says, I bear a charmed life which must not yield to one of women born. The word charm originally meant a spoken or sung magical incantation, which over the years evolved into these meanings associated with beguiling or winning people over but Macbeth clearly uses it with his spoken spell meaning in mind, in Macbeth, the spell takes the form of a prophetic incantation. Now, whenever I hear someone talk about leaving a charmed life, I find myself wondering none about the supposedly blessed person, but who might have spoken that charm on their behalf. What were their motives? Warning, spending any time at all with Macbeth can certainly lead to a more suspicious mindset. Now, have you ever accused someone of being Lily livered? The phrase means cowardly, and it's used in the play moment, Beth when he talks to an unfortunate servant, go prick my face and over red dye fear that Lily livered boy.
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This phrase seems to be Shakespeare's own creation, which tracks since it's clear, he loves his alliteration, Lily livered with that profusion of liquid ELLs actually requires a fair bit of articulation to make the sounds distinct. So where does the cowardly bit come in?
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Well, it's all linked to this ancient medical theory known as the four humors. That was still considered sound in Shakespeare's day. This theory held that the human body contained four humors, or liquids that affected people both physically and mentally.
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The humans were blood, phlegm, black bile, and the yellow bile.
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Each humor was responsible for different emotions, and an imbalance could could affect a person's personality. It's a really fun and wacky theory that I absolutely recommend you look into if you haven't heard of it before, and it makes its way into many other Shakespearean moments. But today, we are concerned with one human in particular, yellow bile, also known as color spelled ch o l.
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e. r, an excess of color was thought to make a person irritable, angry and warlike. We might describe someone who inhabits these traits as being of a choleric disposition.
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Renaissance anatomy held that collar was associated perhaps even produced in the liver. So therefore, if a person wasn't filled with a warlike aggressive nature, it meant their liver wasn't producing enough color.
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It wouldn't appear this raging yellow color, it would look pale and weak. Now a yellow liver indicating a pugnacious nature seems a bit strange to us today, because in the centuries since Shakespeare was writing, yellow has assumed this cowardly connection. But for the Bard, the color of cowardice, was a pale white color, like a delicate Lily. This is also seen in the lines before Lily livered is even used to describe the servants frightened face. The devil damn the black thou cream faced Loon. Throughout the play, Macbeth rejects the light in favor of the shadows. Stars hide your fires, he says, Let not night see my black and deep desires. By the end, he dismisses pale light colors as being cowardly. The only color Macbeth seems to want to see at this point is the color red. And finally, this phrase, one fell swoop. We use it to mean all in one go usually with a note of decisive finality. This phrase is used by Macduff when he learns the murder of his wife and children. All my pretty ones did you say all Oh hell, Kate, all what all my pretty chickens and they damn at one fell swoop.
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This moment in the play is absolutely heartbreaking. It interrupts a scene of relative safety and peace in comparison to the rest of the play, and Macduff and Malcolm, are probably at the happiest, most hopeful point we ever see any of the characters reach. But then this news comes, and the buoyant moment of Hope is ripped away from us. The way Macduff keeps asking whether all his children are dead, he repeats the word all four times, really snags at my heartstrings, and to moment that feels distressingly real.
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And when an actor nails that you can feel this charge in the air, you feel sick and taut and grief stricken all at once. But back to the phrase, we're looking at one fell swoop. The word fell here is used with the meaning to be cruel and vicious. It likely came into the English language from France. And before that, the Latin word fellow meaning villain, we get the word felon from the same root. The swoop bit ends the larger image Shakespeare has created with this speech. He presents a hell Kate, a devilish bird of prey and refers to mcdonoughs wife and children as though there were a hen with her chicks. The final image is one of terrible and almost implausible savagery, a bird of prey managing to slaughter the whole clutch of chicks along with their mother in a single attack dive. One swoop, it's brutal. Now, as is becoming alarmingly clear, this play is not filled with sunshine and lollipops. But it is filled with a story that I'm constantly drawn back to. And who better to lead us through this tale than the three intrepid handle bards who are about to tour a production this very summer.
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Katherine Perkins, Jenny Smith, and Natalie Simone will be leading us through the entire plot of Macbeth, in under two minutes. It's our first short and snappy synopsize Shakespeare colab and I'm sure they're gonna name it. So Break a leg bards, Your time starts now.
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The play opens with Macbeth and Banquo being greeted by three witches. They prophesized that Macbeth is going to be fain of gloms quarter, and eventually King bancos children will be king. I like the sound of that. He finds out that his vein of glands and corridor and believes he could be king, Lady Macbeth receives a letter from hackers and she takes the reins on this mission.
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Duncan the king goes to congratulate Macbeth on his title and stays with him and Lady Macbeth comes up fruition and they successfully kill the king. Macbeth starts to get paranoid about Langford his prophecy says another evil plan were killed Banquo he gets to murder has to do with the deeds for DinDin she sees bancos ghost goes completely do. Macbeth decided he wants to go back to the witches To find out more information. What's going on? He is told that no man that is born of a woman can kill him. So he thinks Macduff isn't a threat.
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But just to be safe. He's gonna kill him anyway.
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Lies during lunch so Macbeth kills his family. Witches also say that he should feel would approve, uprooting and coming towards him.
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He says this is impossible. Oh my touchable. Then the jumping revenge starts a war against Macbeth and sneaks upon Macbeth's castle disguised as a woodland and the terrain.
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Macbeth sees the wood moving towards his castle and he panics big sigh mugdock. Tough is a C section baby.
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And Kant says Malcolm is king.
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And
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many, many, many thanks, Catherine, Jenny, and Natalie. I very much look forward to seeing how you'll bring the story to life on the stage. So do you think you know your Macbeth's from your mcdonoughs let's dive in.
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So, the Scottish play? Why Scotland? Why this story? Where does it come from? As I mentioned earlier, by the time this play was written, Shakespeare's Theatre Company had changed names from the Lord Chamberlain's men to the king's men. After George Carey, the Lord Chamberlain stepped down as patron to allow the New King James the first to take over.
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Now Jimmy, the first of England was also Jimmy the sixth of Scotland, and as such, it seems likely that this partly influenced the decision to create a play set in his mother country. elements of the play was certainly included to appeal specifically to the king. James claim descent from the historical Banquo. And so the inclusion of this character in the play in the prophecy that tells of his line becoming kings, which certainly appeal.
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The play also ends with this call to unity, peace and friendship between Scotland and England under a rightful monarch, which reflects the social and political environment of Britain in the early 17th century, when this play was first proton, then there's also the matter of witchcraft and magic. We'll explore King Jimmy's fascination with that a little later. As I said, King James supposedly traced dissent from Banquo, who at the time was considered a real historical figure, but what about the rest?
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Many of the characters in Macbeth are actually based on real people. King Duncan and his son Malcolm Earle seaward of Northumbria, and Edward the Confessor, the Saxon King of England, who is only ever mentioned in the play. We're all real historical figures, as was Macbeth, or to give him his full Gallic title, MK Baha McCune, look in the re jerk, which can be anglicised to Macbeth MK Finley, the Red King, the Red King, or what an ominous nickname. Shakespeare's Macbeth could certainly be described as a Red King from the sheer amount of blood he's responsible for spilling, but it actually seems like this title, the Red King, were referred to the real Macbeth's head of golden red hair. Now there's another rather tasty tidbit with Macbeth's name. You may have noticed that Scottish and Irish names have a lot of Max in them. This is because these names were originally patronymic names, which means they described who someone's father was. This isn't a practice confined to Scotland and Ireland, we said all over the world. In English we have names like Johnson, son of john, in Scandinavia, find names like Spencer or Harold's dotted Hebrew names might start with a band or a bat, while Iberian names might end in s or s.
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Abramovich Kardashian. These are all patronymics. So Macbeth MK Finley is Macbeth, son of Finley. But bill isn't Macbeth, another patronymic? Yes, but this one isn't literal. Any whiskey drinkers out amongst you might know that the word whiskey comes from the Gallic usco Baha, which means water of life. mk Baha therefore translates to son of life, a name filled with hope and promise. How darkly ironic then, that it became the name of one of literature's most prominent murderers. Shakespeare got the story of Macbeth, from a text known as Hollins heads chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, published in 1577 500 years after the events surrounding the reign of the real Macbeth. It's a sprawling three volume work that seeks to contain the entire history of these three countries. Macbeth isn't the only play that the Chronicles might have influenced. There are also the seeds for King Lear and symbolising included, and Christopher Marlowe and Edmund Spenser are also believed to have drawn inspiration from it.
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The Chronicles aren't known for the historical accuracy, however, and Shakespeare was even more liberal with his interpretation.
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Historically, Macbeth was an 11th century king of Mori, situated in the highlands. He then became King of Scotland, when the current King Duncan led an attack on macbeths lands and was defeated and killed in the battle. So historically, Duncan appears to be the aggressor in the story, not a murderous married pair of macbeths.
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Macbeth was then elected King from among the Lords of Scotland, and that seems to be no contemporary accounts of his role being particularly tyrannous. Eventually, he is believed to have been defeated in battle by Malcolm some of Duncan, who would go on to become Malcolm the third, Malcolm canmore. Now hollinshead Chronicles tell a different story, which is much closer to what Shakespeare would eventually write. Although the attitude towards characters does change somewhat hollinshead Banquo assists Macbeth in the murder of Duncan, it's understandable why Shakespeare would want to edit that particular detail. Given his patron the king's connection to Banquo. He also changes the character of Duncan from a young king with no noticeable character traits to an old king who oozes goodness from every royal pour
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if you're enjoying this podcast, and please remember to subscribe and leave us a glowing five star review so that we can reach out Even more people if you're really enjoying our podcast, why not consider donating to the handlebars outreach program@www.handlebars.com forward slash donate your donation we'll break down the barriers to creative expression by providing online workshops led by the handle bards to everyone and anyone who wants to enjoy them. If you'd like to see one of the 100 bugs shows, then head over to the handle Barb's dot
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com forward slash
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tickets to find out when the recycling event.
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Shakespeare does decide to keep one particular element from hollinshead Chronicle that has become one of the most recognizable plots in the play.
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hollinshead describes a meeting between Macbeth, Banquo and three women clothed in quote, strange and surly apparel resembling creatures of the elder world. They announced a series of prophecies regarding the two warriors and their fortunes. You'll recognize these characters as the inspiration for Shakespeare's weird sisters.
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But most people call them the witches.
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Let's talk witches. The Witches three double double toil and trouble if you ask someone which springs to mind when they say Macbeth, they're most likely to say murder Scotland or witches.
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And it isn't hard to see why.
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These three characters are dramatic, standout characters, not only in this play, but in all of Shakespeare. I mean, yes, we see prophecy and destiny and other plays from soothsayers and ghostly apparitions and dreams.
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But nowhere do we see the agents of fate so prominently presented. Act one scene one is very short, but it catapults us into a meeting between the three sisters who set the scene for us in a beautifully comprehensive, yet really nicely succinct piece of exposition. We know it's stormy, the Sun is setting it's a Heath battle is about to finish. We're now in a world of bleak dark bloodshed. Excellent cheers, ladies. They go from being our first taste of the play to being the key drivers of the plot. Their prophecies set in motion the wonderfully agonizing tragic arc we witness, and they're a constant source of questions and speculation regarding the nature of destiny.
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And this word, Destiny, I think, is key to how these characters are perceived. In hollinshead Chronicles, the three women are presented as supernatural characters from a past age, fairies, nymphs or even goddesses. The Chronicles are reaching way back into the mists of times for these figures, beyond the ordered frontiers of history and into the murky marches of myth. Now many cultures around the world have divine triads, but we're concerned with a specific type of trio goddesses of destiny.
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The ancient Greeks called these three, the more AI and they presided over fate in a very tactile way. klotho spins together threads to create a person's life. Lucky sis measures the thread and weaves its pattern. And finally atropos cuts the thread bringing an end to the life if we voyage up north, closer to the world of Macbeth, we have a similar trio of fate goddesses known to the Scandinavians as the norns word for Tandy and schooled who preside over the past, the present and the future. Now, it's believed that none of these faithful ladies were actively worshipped. Instead, they were considered forces of nature, implacable and inescapable, like gravity. And this is partly how the sisters are presented to us in the play. Every prophecy they give comes to pass, which is partly why this play is such a satisfying journey. We're given the bare bones of events that will happen and then we delight in seeing exactly how they play out. But despite fulfilling a very important public service broadcast roll, these ladies are not considered friendly in the play or even have an otherworldly neutrality. They are definitely portrayed as bad.
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Macbeth call to them secret black and midnight hags. Banquo says they are withered and wild in their attire, that they have Chappie fingers skinny lips and beards. They're constantly described as powers of darkness.
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So why this change from three mystical ladies met on a lonesome road to three that look evil and behave even more. So.
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Partly, this could be Shakespeare just using up the story to make it seem edgier.
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But we also have to turn back to King Jimmy Shakespeare's patron at the time. James Stewart had many fascination And one of these was witchcraft. He himself presided over North barrack witch trials of 1590. West between 70 to 200. People were implicated in witchcraft. The King even published a book on evil magic and those who practice it called demonology.
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In it, the king describe the activities which is get up to, and Shakespeare has his three sisters discussed their doings, as though they were quoting directly from the king's book.
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They killed swine, cause shipwrecks and drain men of their life essence. Then there are the latest scenes where the character of equity or hecate, the demonic mistress of the sisters is introduced. hecate was an ancient Greek goddess of many mysterious things magic, the moon snakes crossroads, and interestingly, she herself was often depicted as a triple aspect goddess, sometimes with three heads. hecate is usually cut from the modern productions for various reasons. And sort of detracts from the agency and menace of the three sisters to have another power above them.
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But also, she can be entirely removed from the plot without affecting it at all. This leads many to believe that certain scenes and parts and Macbeth involving the witches may have been added by a playwright called Thomas Middleton, who also wrote a play in titled The witch.
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With all this talk of witches, it should be said that the word which is only ever used once in the play to describe the sisters, and that is by one of the three herself when she is describing how someone called her a witch. Otherwise, they're described simply as the sisters or the weird sisters. Now, the word weird, wouldn't have had quite the same meaning for Shakespeare's audience as we give it today. Shakespeare could have intended for it to have a sort of double meanings since his belief the word would have been pronounced something like wayward, which sounds like a contraction of way would to mean deviating from the right way.
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Weird also has an older meaning, and that was to describe fate.
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It was used as a noun rather than an adjective. If someone was talking about their own personal destiny, they would talk about their weird. This ties the sisters back to hollinshead initial description of them as agents of destiny, and in an even neater cyclical rounding off. The word weird is set to derive from one of those Norse goddesses I mentioned earlier, ruled. So if you take anything from this rather extended which you ramble, I hope that it's the fact that the three sisters in Macbeth are far more than three evil ladies hanging around a cauldron. They have influences from many different sources, which makes them a treasure trove of possibility when considering how we might play them in performance. But it's not just the scary supernatural elements that make this play one of Shakespeare's most popular creations. It's one of the more accessible plays for audiences is relatively short and Pacey.
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The action hammers along with the Macbeth's clattering from one misdeed to the next until it all falls down around it is it's relentless. And that's something that's essential for both tragedy and comedy. If the characters have enough breathing space between events to settle down, and really consider what they're doing, they might unravel some of the faulty thought processes that are leading their Catterick characters actions, whether those are hilarious shenanigans of mistaken identity, or racking up a grisly body count. I also think Macbeth has this very finely wrought shape to it. The tragic structure is easy to follow and incredibly satisfying. We follow the eponymous characters rise to great heights, the greatest in the world of the play, and then we watch them descend until their final four. We observe events unfold and listen wrapped as the characters desperately work to adapt. It's this struggle that really affects us.
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Nobody wants to see a story about someone having everything they want dropped in their lap.
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But more than just a struggle.
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It's the fact that Shakespeare draws us in and allows us insight into why these characters are behaving in the way they're behaving through his use of soliloquy and argued dialogue. We might not agree with their actions, but we can understand why they're doing them with Shakespeare's other villains rich the third Jago donjon, Queen Margaret, we get delicious speeches that explain their desires, their frustrations and how they intend to remedy the situation. But unlike most of them, Macbeth wavers in questions himself, at least at the beginning. Some have said the only interesting thing to see or Here is the heart at war with itself. And in this way, Macbeth is more akin to Hamlet or Brutus. But unlike Hamlet, and more like Brutus, Macbeth isn't able to act alone.
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The plot requires the presence of another character to foster the change that is necessary for the tragedy to progress.
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The lady as she is often doting Lee called is a standout character and Shakespeare were first introduced to her as an individual, and were able to hear her own perspective, so that when Macbeth eventually joins her, we consider both these characters as unique characters yet united in their aims. This is what makes the scenes before and after Duncan's murder so fascinating. The characters are noticeably different people. And this divergence is what fuels the drama, it's enthralling to watch Lady Macbeth adapt and modify her tactics to encourage or embolden or reason with or shame her husband into achieving their objective. Just as it's enthralling to watch Macbeth threatened Buchan battle with himself over the doing the deed.
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This couple of my favorite character arc in the whole of Shakespeare. Imagine a graph with Lady m starting out of the top of the y axis, and maketh himself at the bottom. Lady m starts out steadfast calculating in control, while her husband is wracked with indecision, fear, and mania. The characters then start to draw together and they meet in the center around the moment of the murder or maybe maybe just after, this is when they are most in sync as a couple. From that moment onwards, Macbeth surges upwards with renewed focus, confidence and determination, making decisions on his own and pursuing an agenda that continues to drop the bodies.
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Lady Macbeth on the other hand, deteriorates. She loses control, she questions her husband until he leaves her out of his decisions entirely. He says be innocent to the knowledge there is Chuck. Finally, it is Lady Macbeth that is experiencing delusions in the form of her blood stained hands, and she becomes so distant from her husband, that we only hear her death reported, which prompt is stunned the existential monologue from Macbeth before the final, climactic, bloody battle. We cannot escape blood in this play. The first line from a human character is Duncan's. What bloody man is that referencing a wounded soldier. Throughout the play, we have these graphic descriptions of battle wounds and maiming and murder. The visions that the Macbeth's both experienced are drenched in blood. We've got the dagger Banquo Spectre, the damned spot. I adore the imagery Shakespeare compares the amount of blood spilt in this seater oceans know this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas in carnitine, making the green one red and then there's I am in blood stepped in so far that should I weighed no more returning were as tedious as go on. But there's other rivers of blood running through this play.
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And that's in the more symbolic sense of bloodlines. Almost every major character we meet has a child. Duncan has Malcolm and Donald Bane. Banquo has flans Macduff has all his children. Even the old seaward has a son who dies at the hands of Macbeth. The leads, however, are childless. In her monologues Lady Macbeth reveals that she has breastfed a child before, but there is no other mention of this missing offspring in the rest of the play. It's this more than their conspiracy for the crown that sets the Macbeth's apart from the rest of the characters. When Macbeth considers the initial prophecy by the weird sisters, he rages that the crown will pass to the heirs of Banquo. Because they have no children. The Macbeth seemed to have no hope for the future, beyond a brutal tragic demise. At the end of the play, it is this eye to continuance for the future that is used to kindle a hopeful finish.
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I apologize if this episode has seemed a little steeped in gloom and horror, but Well, that's Macbeth for you. I also think there's moments in this play that are incredibly funny.
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There's the porters monologue, for instance, which is very ironic and darkly humorous. But then there's also the moment when Duncan's bodies discovered the macbeths are forced to put on masks of innocence and the result is almost farcical.
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Particularly when Macbeth has to justify why he killed the groom's he flails about until lady m puts a stop to it by affecting a swoon. The play is so deeply tragic, so overblown with violence and madness that it's actually very easy to lend itself towards a surreal sort of comedy, which is definitely good for the handlebars. And that's certainly what you can expect from a production of Macbeth by them. Macbeth doesn't need to be played as a tragic horror in the same way that the weird sisters don't need to be played as a misogynist portrayal of a stereotypical older woman, Macbeth, and all of Shakespeare, in fact, is like a rich, sumptuous haggis. Now hear me out on this one. It contains many different elements blended together. purists will insist it's done in a certain way. Some people are a little put off by it, and it certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea. It enjoys a hearty tradition that people love to celebrate time and time again. People have their own relationships with their own histories with it. People love to exchange their opinions on it, innovators come up with new and accessible ways for people to delight and experience it.
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It's meant to be enjoyed as a celebration. It's meant to be enjoyed with others. It's meant to bring people together.
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And so we reach the end of this run of the Bard with Bill. I'd like to raise a glass to everyone behind the scenes that have been very hard at work to bring this show to the airwaves.
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So solanco varki, you Tom poor guy and Lucy. Thank you also to the bards that gave their vocal talents to provide a whirlwind synopsis for every play we've explored so far. And, most importantly, thanks to you, dear friends, for lending me your
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This podcast is brought to you by the handlebars. Please remember to subscribe and leave a review. It was produced by Tom Dixon and Paul moss and researched and voiced by William Ross force it.
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It was introduced by me, Lucy green, and the music was created and performed by guy here. To find out more about the handlebars. Just head over to our website, handle bards.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to search at 100
