The Textual Question

Shakespeare: Macbeth

In this course, Professor John Lennard (Independent Scholar) explores Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In the first lecture, we think about the text of Macbeth, and the question of how much the earliest printed edition of the play (1623) resembles what the first performance of the play in 1605/6. In the second lecture, we think about the concept of metatheatre in Shakespeare in general and Macbeth in particular, before turning in the third lecture to the figures of the weird sisters. In the fourth lecture, we focus on two iconic moments in Act 2 – Macbeth’s ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me?’ speech (2.1.33ff.) and the Porter’s ‘Here’s a knocking indeed’ speech (2.3.1ff.) – before turning in the fifth lecture to think about two iconic moments in Act 3 – the murder of Banquo in 3.3 – and particularly the presence of a third murderer – and the appearance of Banquo’s ghost at the Macbeths’ banquet in 3.4. In the sixth lecture and seventh lectures, we look at some key moments in Act 4 – Macbeth’s visit to the witches in 4.1, the murder of Lady Macduff and her children in 4.2, and the long scene 4.3 in which (among other things) Malcolm tests Macduff by pretending he will be as bad a king as Macbeth. In the eighth lecture, we turn to the figure of Lady Macbeth, and in particular her final scene in the play, before turning in the ninth lecture to Macbeth’s death (or deaths?) at the end of the play. In the tenth and final lecture, we take a step back to consider some of Shakespeare’s key preoccupations in Macbeth and in his dramatic output more generally.

The Textual Question

In this lecture we think about the text of Macbeth, with a particular focus on the authorship of the play and the reasons for its unusual shortness. As we move through the lecture, we consider: (i) the reasons for thinking that the text of Macbeth that appears in the First Folio (1623) is not purely Shakespearean: the language and imagery of 3.5 and parts of 4.1, the figure of Hecate, the internal contradictions in 3.5, 3.6 and 4.1, etc.; (ii) the revival of an interest in witchcraft in the 1610s, with witchcraft cases in 1612, 1616, 1619 and 1621 and plays such as Ben Jonson’s The Devil is an Ass (1616) and Rowley, Dekker and Ford’s The Witch of Edmonton (1621); (iii) the reasons for Macbeth’s unusual shortness, including the possible removal of material by Middleton and/or the desire for a particularly compact tragedy; and (iv) the importance of acknowledging textual issues with Macbeth, especially when discussing particular scenes (e.g. 3.5), characters (e.g. Hecate), or themes (e.g. the power of witchcraft to compel rather than simply tempt, mentioned in 3.5).