Shakespeare’s choice of the supernatural, historically based plot of Macbeth was not an arbitrary one. The Scottish King James VI ascended the throne in 1603 and was, thereafter, known as King James I of England. The date of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is placed at between 1605 and 1606. Shakespeare chose a theme that would please the new, Scottish, witch-crazed king under whom his troupe “The Kings Men” served.
In order to win the King’s approval, Shakespeare may have devised a play that would give a flattering image to the new king. Evidence that the descendants of Banquo, shown to Macbeth in Act 4, Scene I, are the ancestors of King James I is given in Baxter’s The Greatest of Literary Problems. This little bit cannot be quoted without reminding the reader of the unsavory question of Shakespeare’s complete authorship of the play and the possibility of Francis Bacon’s assistance, which we will not discuss here. A history book called Baethius, written in 1575, was found in Bacon’s library.
In this book Bacon has written the genealogy of the Scottish Kings descended from Banquo to, and including James V, comprising seven kings; but turning to the play, which appeared first in the Folio of 1623, Macbeth is shown the descendants of Banquo by the weird sisters (514).
Indeed, if we refer to the play Act 4, Scene 1, the stage directions for this scene reads, “A show of Eight Kings, and Banquo [the] last [King], with a glass in his hand (Haradin, 1062).” The seven Kings are paraded onto the stage, and “the last holds up a magic mirror to the audience. This is not only a symbol of many more kings in the same line, but also allows King James to see his own reflection (Ross, 40).” Undoubtedly, the play was written for King James I.
King James I had other interests aside from genealogy – he was very interested in witches. He was England’s greatest witch hunter who was responsible for the deaths of more British witches than any other monarch in the history of England. A vivid description of James’ witch hunting activities is given by Anne Llewellyn Barstow in Witchcraze:
James began to suspect in 1590 that a coven of witches at North Berwick was plotting his death and the overthrow of the Scottish throne. Impelled by fear not only of sorcery but of treason also, James interrogated the accused himself, being especially vicious to Agnes Sampson and Barbara Napier. Referring to Eve’s seduction by the snake, he explained that all women are more easily entrapped by the devil than men. In his treatise [Daemonologie] he insisted that all witches deserved death by fire – all ages, all ranks, even children. Introducing the concepts of demonic pact and sabbat into Scotland, he in effect launched the witch craze there (114).
Belief in and knowledge of the intricacies of witchcraft were common place during Shakespeare’s time. An important observer, Reginald Scot tells us in his book The Discoverie of Witchcraft, the first edition of which was written in 1584:
The fables of Witchcraft have taken so fast hold and deepe root in the heart of man, that fewe or none can (nowadaies) with patience indure the hand and correction of God. For if any adversitie, greefe, sicknesse, losse of children, corne, cattel, or libertie happen unto them; by & by they exclaime uppon witches (1).
The fact that many learned scholars supported such beliefs only made them stronger among the common people. King James I tried to destroy every copy of this study in witchcraft, but apparently did not succeed because copies of it are in abundance today. It is likely that Shakespeare relied on Scot’s book for his characterization of the witches in Macbeth. The witches Shakespeare popularized are very likely the basis for our modern-day concept of witches. Scot gives us a familiar description: “Women which be commonly old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles: poore, sullen, superstitious (4).”
Witches are known to have five major sabbats, time of heightened power due to natural planetary forces. It is my own conjecture that the meeting of the witches shown in the first scene of Macbeth is not one of the sabbats, but rather the ending of a meeting unauthorized by Hecate, Queen of the Witches. I reason this, firstly, because there is a question of another meeting taking place. Secondly, Hecate appears in Act II, Scene 5 to chastise the three for creating forbidden mischief with Macbeth. This is a clue to the humane regard Shakespeare may have had for “white witchcraft,” that is non-malevolent witch powers. Hecate is angry that without her presence the witches have given prophesies of any kind to one as “wayward,” “spiteful,” and “wrathful” as Macbeth. When Hecate disappears, the three witches continue with haste before she returns to stop their evil plans. This scene portrays Hecate, the dark aspect of the moon goddess Diana, as a non-malevolent or , at least, disapproving of the dark deeds of the three “weird sisters.”
The portrayal of this sort of maleficium would have been a dark delight to King James I, who believed that such a plot against his own throne at a similar meeting of the North Berwick witches had been thwarted. Surely, he would have been pleased at Shakespeare’s fanciful rendition of how his family’s rightful power had been restored.
Minute details about witchcraft, too numerous to mention a short treatment of the subject, were included in Macbeth, undoubtedly, to impress King James I. James was a man so deeply fascinated by witches that he had even written his own treatise on the subject. Shakespeare mixed Scottish history with ancient folklore and modern superstition to create a play that would make him a great success with the king. Unknowingly, he has also become a phenomenal success with many generations who followed him.
Bibliography
Asimov, Isaac. Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare, Vol. 2. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1970.
Barstow, Anne Llewellyn. Witchcraze. New York: Dover Publications, 1971.
Baxter, James Phinney. Greatest of Literary Problems. Boston and New York: Mifflin company, 1918.
Bradley, A.C. Shakespearean Tragedy. London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1990.
Buckman, Irene. Twenty Tales from Shakespeare. New York: Random House, 1963.
Dean, Leonard F. (editor) Shakespeare Modern Essays in Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.
Dyer, Rev. T . F. Thiselton, M.A. Oxon. Folklore of Shakespeare. New York: Harper & Brother, Franklin Square, 1884.
Halliday, F.E. Shakespeare and His World. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1956.
Lowell, James Russell. Literary Essays: Among My Books, My Study Windows, Fireside Travels. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1890.
Nagler, A.M. Shakespeare’s Stage. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1958.
Ross,Stewart. Shakespeare and Macbeth: The Story Behind the Play. New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc., 1994.
Scot, Reginald. The Discoverie of Witchcraft. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1972.
