UNSAM Subject: English Literature I

Lecturers: Dra. Gabriela Leighton

Occasional Macbeth:
King James and
Witchcraft

ANGÉLICA SANTI
DNI: 20029315
 Table of Contents

Page

Introduction……..…………………………………………………………………………….2

I. Macbeth the Legend…………………………..…………………………….…4

II. King James’s Daemonologie ……………………..…………………………6

III. Witchcraft in Macbeth……………………………………………………........9

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………...16

Notes………………………………………………………………………………………..…18

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………..22

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Introduction

In Shakespearean Tragedy, A.C. Bradley claims that Macbeth is distinguished by

its “grandeur in simplicity. The two great figures indeed can hardly be called simple …

but in almost every other respect the tragedy has this quality. Its plot is quite plain.” (163)

He also reflects that “the shortness of the play has suggested to some, that Shakespeare

was hurried and, throwing all his weight on the principal characters, did not exert himself

in dealing with the rest.” (163)

This brings up to the question of whether Macbeth can be called an occasional

play, that is to say, it was written on the occasion of some important event. Provided that

is the case, it can also be said that the play is occasional in two senses. First, because

it is said that Shakespeare would have never written on a Scottish subject if a Scottish

king had not came to the throne. Second, and more specifically, some scholars believe

that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth as a homage to King James on the occasion of King

Christian VI of Denmark’s visit to his brother in law from July 17th to August 11th, 1606.

Such royal visit included many dramatic performances as well as bear-baiting and

demonstrations of fencing and wrestling. Although it was unusual for a theatre play to be

premiered at court or written for a specific royal presentation, economic necessity due to

the closing of theatre because of the plague, might have led Shakespeare’s company,

The King’s Men to present Macbeth there first.1

Only hypothesis and circumstantial evidence join Macbeth with either James

accession or Christian’s visit, yet it is the purpose of this monograph to present some of

these evidence in order to establish a relationship between the play’s structure, narrative,

themes, imagery and language and the influences of James and of James's interests in

Shakespeare’s writing of Macbeth as well as to expose some political or personal

benefits Shakespeare might have aspired to obtain as a result of its writing. I will resort

to Donald Tyson, The Demonology of King James I; Jan Kott, Shakespeare, Our

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Contemporary and A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy as main sources of theoretical

background. I will divide the analysis in three main parts: (I) the facts around Macbeth,

the legend; (II) a brief comment on the most relevant ideas in King James’s book,

Daemonologie and; (III) a more detailed description of the role the Witches play in the

tragedy.

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 I. Macbeth the Legend

Before Macbeth, English dramatists always depicted Scotsmen as a comical,

dangerous and barbaric people. The historic Franco-Scottish alliance made these two

countries seem likely to take advantage of any English internal dissension at that time.

Some surviving documents tell the dark tale that surrounded this ancient rivalry. At the

beginning of Holinshed’s Chronicles there is a “Description of Britaine” by William

Harrison’s that comment on the Scots in chapter 42 portraying them as cannibalistic and

violent. It is also said that both the English and the Lowland Scots considered

Highlanders, dwellers of the parts of Scotland where Macbeth takes place, especially

savage and uncivilized. King James VI himself, following these views, cautioned his

infant son Prince Henry about the Highlands in Basilikon Doron, and advised him on how

he should deal roughly with Highlanders when he became the king3. What is most

contradictory is that it was the same James that claimed to believe that he descended

from one Banquo, Thane of Lochaber in the eleventh century when Scotland’s king was

Macbeth.4

In Macbeth: King James's Play, George Walton Williams explains that also in

Holinshed’s Chronicles, there is a story of a Scottish thane Mackbeth, who killed his King

Duncane, became king himself, and was eventually destroyed by the old king's son

Malcolme Cammore. He continues explaining that in the legend of Mackbeth,

Shakespeare found also references to Banquho, the Thane of Lochquhaber, Mackbeth's

friend, who gathered the finances due to the king. Banquho, Shakespeare discovered,

had been with Mackbeth when he met the three women in strange and wild apparel; they

had prophesied that of Banquho “those shall be borne which shall governe the Scotish

kingdome by long order of continuall descent."5 He learned that Mackbeth killed

Banquho, but that Banquho's son, "by the helpe of almightie God reserving him to better

fortune, escaped that danger," and that his descendants did indeed come after many

4
generations to govern Scotland "by long order of continuall descent."6 Two parallel fables

derive from the legend: Macbeth kills Duncan and his descendant returns immediately

to claim the throne; Macbeth kills Banquo and his descendant returns after many

generations to claim the throne.

Regarding this as a first connection to the significance of Macbeth as an

occasional play, I will use as a starting point of discussion what A.C. Bradley states in

Shakespearean Tragedy, when responding to a doubt about the exact date of Macbeth’s

appearance. Bradley resorts to a comparison of metric and style in Shakespeare’s work.

“… the date is not earlier than that of the accession of James I. in 1603. The style and

versification would make an earlier date almost impossible.” (222) He continues his

paralleling by relating now to the second point of reference to the occasional play, which

deals with themes, topics and motifs of the play:

“… the allusions to 'two−fold balls and treble sceptres' … the descent of Scottish kings

from Banquo; the … description of touching for the King's Evil …; and the dramatic use

of witchcraft, a matter on which James considered himself an authority.” (222)

Also related to the stereotypes about Scotsmen that impregnated the context in

which Shakespeare might have written the play, Bradley explains that in many parts of

Macbeth “there is in the language a peculiar compression, pregnancy, energy, even

violence; the harmonious grace and even flow, often conspicuous in Hamlet, have almost

disappeared.” Highlanders’ depictions of the time, as it has been described before, might

have inspired Shakespeare to create “cruel characters … [who] seem to attain at times

an almost superhuman stature. The diction has in places a huge and rugged grandeur,

which degenerates here and there into tumidity.” (140)

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 II. King James’s Daemonologie7

Historians have long attempted to explain why and how the European witch craze

that spread around Europe between the 15th and 18th century took such strong force.

One of the most active centres of witch-hunting was Scotland, where up to 4,000 people

were put to the flames. This was more than double the execution rate in England. The

ferocity of the Scottish persecutions could be attributed to royal witch-hunter James VI

and I and his obsession with witchcraft, which could be traced back to his childhood. The

violent death of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, seems to have inspired in him a dark

fascination with magic. Two years after Mary’s execution, another dramatic event

deepened James’s growing obsession with magic and witchcraft. In 1589 he was

betrothed to Anne of Denmark, but she almost lost her life in a violent tempest when she

set sail across the North Sea to meet her new husband. In an unexpected display of

chivalry, James resolved to sail across to Denmark and collect her in person. But on their

return voyage the royal fleet was battered by more storms and one of the ships was lost.

James immediately placed the blame on witches, claiming that they must have cast evil

spells upon his fleet. As soon as he reached Scottish shores, James ordered a witch-

hunt on a scale never seen before, an event that came to be known as the North Berwick

trials. After they ended, James commissioned Newes from Scotland, a pamphlet that

transmitted the whole saga in shocking language aimed at intensifying popular fear of

witches.

But he did not stop there. With all the force of his passion, James set about

convincing his subjects of the evil that lay among them. Daemonologie was published in

1597 and made James the only monarch in history to publish a book about witchcraft.

Daemonologie (literally, ‘the science of demons’) was the result of a detailed work on

James’s part that might have taken years to complete. It became so influential that during

the first year of his reign, Daemonologie was reprinted twice.8

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 In his book, The Demonology of King James I, Donald Tyson states that James

compensated with “keenness of intellect” the “weakness of his body” (1). Tyson also

adds that James was a strong believer in the supernatural but did not recognize what

was sometimes termed as "white magic”. For him, the use of herbs and stones was a

matter of medicine and science. For James, there was the power of God, on the one

hand and the power of Satan on the other. Tyson claims that “The supernatural must

have terrified him at least as much as the political intimidations used by his Scottish

nobles.” (5) The purpose of his book, according to Tyson, was to increase the

persecution of witches in Scotland and England. As strong was his belief that shortly

after assuming the English throne in 1603, James ordered a new edition of his book to

be published in London so that he could expand his battle against witchcraft to England.

A year after his coronation, James succeeded and a new statute was approved that

included harder punishments for witches and practitioners of magic. The statute of

James made it a crime punishable by hanging to: (1) invoke , consult, covenant with,

entertain, employ, feed, or reward any evil spirit for any purpose, (2) take any dead body,

or any part of a dead body, for use in any witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment,

(3) practice any form of witchcraft, enchantment, charm, or sorcery in which any person

is killed, destroyed, wasted, consumed, pined, or lamed in the body, or any part of the

body and, (4) aid, abet, or counsel others in any of the above acts. The punishment for

witchcraft in England was hanging, the same as for other more common felonies such

as murder. In Scotland, witchcraft was punished by burning, but the custom was to

strangle the condemned witch at the stake before lighting the fire, and in this way to

lessen the suffering of the witch.

In Book I, Chapter III, James explains the difference between necromancy and

witchcraft. The character Philomathes asks “What difference is there between this art

and witchcraft?” (67) To what Epistemon answers “… the witches are servants only, and

slaves, to the Devil, but the necromancers are his masters and commanders.” (68) But

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setting this difference between masters and servants, he then adds that any of those

men specially addicted to the Devil’s service can, “… on the other part obtain the fruition

of their body and soul, which is the only thing he hunts for.” (68) Further on, about the

effect and secrets of necromancy, he explains that there are “two sorts of folk ... enticed

to this art … For diverse men, having attained to a great perfection in learning ... assay

to vindicate unto them a greater name … to claim to the knowledge of things to come

thereby.” (68-69).

Details about witchcraft are developed in Book II, Chapter III of the treatise.

James deals with the witches ' actions, which might be divided into two parts: the actions

proper to their own persons and their actions towards others. He also talks about the

form of their conventions when adoring their master. James even explains that the Devil

himself in person teaches his disciples how to work all kinds of mischief and where to

carry them out: “... often times makes his slaves to convene in these very places which

are destined ... for the convening of the servants of God” and “… witches oftentimes

confess .... His convening in the church with them, but his occupying of the pulpit; ... to

be the kissing of his hinder parts.” (117) As regards the witches’ actions used toward

others, the character Epistemon illuminates Philomathes by explaining that the Devil

teaches them to make powders by mixing things he gives unto them, to some others he

teaches how to make pictures of wax or clay, to cause in the people that they bear the

name of be continually melted or dried away by continual sickness. To some he gives

stones or powders that will help to cure or cast on diseases. And, finally, to some others,

he teaches rare kinds of rude poisons that cannot be understood by regular doctors, and

can only be cured by “by earnest prayer to God, by amendment of their lives, and by

sharply pursuing every one, according to his calling, of these instruments of Satan,

whose punishment to the death will be a salutary sacrifice for the patient.” (132)

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 All these being said, there seems to be no doubt as to why witch-hunting was a

respectable, moral, and highly intellectual pursuit through much of the fifteenth, sixteenth

and seventeenth centuries.9

III. Witchcraft in Macbeth

In Shakespeare’s England, belief in witchcraft, magic and the supernatural was

not limited to the lower or uneducated classes. Macbeth is a powerful man of high estate,

and though at times he questions the validity of the three witches and their prophecies,

he ultimately accepts the potential of witchcraft and magic. One of Queen Elizabeth’s

courtiers, Sir Walter Raleigh, described witches as women controlled by the Devil.

Others, such as Reginald Scot, author of The Discoverie of Witchcraft, were far more

skeptical. He argued against the existence of supernatural witchcraft and claimed that

some accused witches were women with mental illnesses while others may have been

scam artists. Indeed, at the height of the witchcraft trials almost all of those accused were

women, and many of them poor or economically vulnerable who, like the witches of

Macbeth, might beg their neighbours for something to eat. But unlike the stage witches,

who, in Act 4, Scene 1, truly can conjure powerful magic, while some of those accused

were convinced they were able to do so, ability to perform such magic was only on

stage.10

The play opens with the entrance of the three witches surrounded by inclement

weather; they speak of thunder, lightning, fog and filthy air. Bradley explains that “the

Witches dance in the thick air of a storm, or, 'black and midnight hags,' receive Macbeth

in a cavern.” (140) Thunder and lightning, as well as other types of meteors, were

associated to witches’ doings, as King James explains in his treatise Daemonologie.

(130) It might be inferred then that Shakespeare creates a chaotic atmosphere to

introduce the Weird sisters so as to match the ones that James portray in the second

Book of the mentioned treatise, more specifically, in Chapter V.11 Even their words seem

9
to contradict each other for this purpose: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair,/ Hover through the

fog and filthy air” (I.i.12-13). Everything is not what it seems. Everything is baffling,

unclear, and foggy. It seems that this is the moment of the engagement of the action.

The meetings of the witches with Macbeth and with Banquo seem to convey that

Shakespeare wishes to tell two legends. The meeting of the witches with Macbeth is first

in time and of fundamental importance to the play, although secondary in importance to

history; the meeting of the witches with Banquo is second in time, minor in importance

to the play, and basal in importance to history. The witches’ prophecies define both

meetings, the prophecies to Macbeth are followed by an immediate reaction; but those

to Banquo result in no instant reaction.

These first scenes might have had a huge impact on a society that believed in

witchcraft, as it was explained before, where witches are seen as scary creatures,

casting evil spells, and plunging people into turmoil with mysterious predictions of the

future. Even the three apparitions from the cauldron seem to derive directly from the

story of Mackbeth in the Chronicles. Their divinations are also detailed there, from

"certeine wizzards" and "a certeine witch, whome hee had in great trust," and whom

Mackbeth consulted on several occasions. Shakespeare seems to have inspired in the

manifestations that the three of them take and uses them in his own Macbeth: the armed

head, the bloody babe, and the crowned child.12

In his book Shakespeare, Our Contemporary, Polish literary critic Jan Kott states

that the witches in Macbeth are part of the landscape and squeak at crossroads to incite

to murder. Adding to the hectic atmosphere, he writes:

“The earth shivers as if in fever, a falcon has been pecked to death in flight by an owl,

horses break out of enclosures in a mad rush, fighting and biting one another.” (63)

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 Describing chaos all around, Kott characterizes Macbeth’s world after the

encounter with the witches as loveless, poisoned with the thought of murder. Even

language resembles that of the existentialists. Macbeth states: “… and nothing is / But

what is not” (I.iii.142-143). Highlighting the ambiguous nature of the verb “be” Macbeth’s

world revolves in a constant contradiction between existence and essence, being “for

itself” and being “in itself”.

As it was said before, Macbeth's reactions to the prophecies is instantaneous and

the attention of the audience very properly fixes on them. Following the rule that a

prophecy voiced on stage must be fulfilled in the play, the prophecy that Macbeth shall

be king is achieved and depicted in the ceremonial royal banquet in Act III, just in the

middle of the play, being this scene structurally coherent to the beginning of Macbeth

and in consequence, to the beginning of the story of this tragic hero. The prophecy that

Banquo will get kings is fulfilled and displayed in Act IV, during the pageant of the eight

kings, being again the scene that coheres structurally to the beginning of the story of

Banquo. As it was explained previously, witches have been described variously in the

course of history, even by King James himself. In Macbeth, Banquo describes them as

creatures “so withered and so wild in their attire, / that look not like th'inhabitants o' th'

earth, / and yet are on’t?” (I.iii.38-40) He judges their appearance as unusual, strange. It

is not fortuitous then that Shakespeare's witches have no names: they are referred to as

the 'Weird Sisters'. Delving up more on the word 'Weird'- or to be precise, 'Weïrd', with

a dieresis on the i, which probably indicates how the word was pronounced, is also

spelled 'weyard'. It comes from the Old English word 'wyrd', Middle English 'werd', which

means 'fate'.13

Bradley also expands on Shakespeare’s use of language to enrich the witchcraft

related imagery of the play and its crafty metaphors. As it was mentioned in the previous

paragraphs, witches meet in an eerie environment. He explains that darkness, or more

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precisely, the blackness, flocks around this tragedy. Almost all the scenes take place

either at night or in some dark locale. Bradley explains that “the blackness of night is to

the hero a thing of fear, even of horror; and that which he feels becomes the spirit of the

play.” (140) Many events occur at twilight or at the hour when “light thickens, / And the

crow makes wing to th’rooky wood” (III.ii.51-52) The naming of the crow is also a direct

reference to witches and an undeniable association to witchcraft. Shakespeare, through

Macbeth, continues with the metaphorical spell: “whiles night's black agents to their prey

do rouse” (III.ii.53) referring to the moment when the wolf begins to howl, the owl to

scream and murder slowly and quietly sets to his work. Lady Macbeth also calls:

“Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, / That my keen knife see

not the wound it makes, /Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,” (I.v.48-51)

By comparing the dark to a blanket, Lady Macbeth seems to be relying on these evil

elements as her allies to commit the crime her husband and herself were plotting.

Bradley also comments on these ghostly use of blankness and darkness, which he

claims are the lights and colours of the thunderstorm in the first scene; of the dagger

hanging before Macbeth's eyes and glittering alone in the midnight air; of the torch borne

by the servant when he and his lord come upon Banquo crossing the castle−court to his

room; of the torch, again, which Fleance carried to light his father to death, and which

was dashed out by one of the murderers; of the torches that flared in the hall on the face

of the Ghost and the blanched cheeks of Macbeth; of the flames beneath the boiling

caldron from which the apparitions in the cavern rose; of the taper which showed to the

Doctor and Gentlewoman the wasted face and blank eyes of Lady Macbeth.

Furthermore, Bradley explains that, above all, the colour is the colour of blood. It

should not be forgotten that blood is a key element in witchcraft and Shakespeare might

have been willing to account for that. It is not by accident that the image of blood is

imposed on us continually, not merely by the events themselves, but by Shakespeare’s

full descriptions and reiteration of the word in unlikely parts of the dialogue. As when

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Macbeth is plotting with Lady Macbeth the murder of Duncan, “when we have mark’d

with blood those sleepy two.” (I.vii.75) Shakespeare seems to be making reference to a

Jacobean court custom, by which appointed members of the bedchamber attended the

king’s personal needs. Or in Macbeth’s soliloquy regarding the spotting of a dagger that

could be the tool for performing the criminal deed:

“And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not so before. There’s no

such thing; / It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes.” (II.i.46-48)

Shakespeare’s overuse of the word blood might become an important device for setting

the tone around the events to come. But, undoubtedly, the most horrible lines in the

whole tragedy are those of Lady Macbeth’s clamour: “Yet who would have thought the

old man to have had so much blood in him?” (V.i.4-35) Lady Macbeth’s flat, almost

disinterested phrasing might suggest despair, guilt as well as helplessness.

Although most modern readers would agree that Duncan's murder is directly

linked to Macbeth's ambition together with the pressure placed on him by Lady Macbeth,

Jacobean audiences would have had a much different view, relating it directly to the

powers of darkness. It seems probable that at the point of constructing the play

Shakespeare altered the sources in order to adapt it to this deep and prevalent belief in

the occult and King James’s interests. In Chronicles, Holinshed’s sisters are “creatures

of the elderwood ... nymphs or fairies.” (268) Nymphs are generally regarded as

goddesses of the mountains, forests, or waters, and they possess a great deal of beauty.

And similarly, fairies are defined as enchantresses, commonly taking a small and dainty

human form.14 Holinshed’s illustration of the creatures Macbeth encounters is nothing

like the depiction Shakespeare gives us through Banquo:

“by each at once her choppy finger laying / Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,

/ And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so.” (I.iii.42-44) Shakespeare

transforms the weird sisters into ugly, androgynous harpies, and they take on a more

13
sinister role than was assigned to them in Holinshed’s Chronicles. Shakespeare’s sisters

are far more theatrically captivating than the nymphs found in Holinshed’s text.

Apart from the Weird Sisters, which, as it has been said previously, have no

name, Shakespeare presents us readers to Hecate; she is the only witch with a name:

“... witchcraft celebrates / Pale Hecate's off'rings …” (II.I.52). Hecate is the Goddess of

classical and medieval witchcraft and sorcery; she can be traced back to Greek

mythology. In Shakespeare’s plays Hecate seems to personify the supernatural and

especially in this part of the play, in which Macbeth is about to perform the bloody deed.

Her name also appears in other parts of the play to picture a dark and sinister

atmosphere:

“...ere the bat hath flown / His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate's summons / The

shard-born beetle … / … there shall be done / A deed of dreadful note” (III.ii.41/ 44).

It seems that in Macbeth, Act III, scene V, Hecate’s appearances might serve to display

hierarchy in the realms of witchcraft because she scolds the Weird Sisters for not

consulting her in their trading with Macbeth, and for wasting their energy on such a

'wayward son', who only 'loves for his own ends'.15

The number three is also related to Hecate, as she is a Greek Goddess with three

heads, symbolizing the three worlds in which she can manifest herself: the underworld,

the earth and the air. The number 'three' and its multiples is important in later witchcraft

tales: in Macbeth there are three weird sisters, and their charms are affected by thrice

and nine: “Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, / And thrice again, to make up nine. / Peace!

- the charm's wound up.”(I.iii.35/ 37).

Even though, as it was stated before, the witches first meet Macbeth in foul

weather, on a dismal, lonely moor, it seems that they have chosen the right moment, for

Macbeth is in a triumphant mood after the successes in battle. The society Shakespeare

pictures, Scotland in the 11th century, is full of conflict and tyranny; kingship is not a safe

14
position, fighting and killing to get to the throne is not uncommon. Macbeth cannot resist

the thought of himself as king and is immediately bewitched by the suggestion of the

witches, who are using their magic power to predict his future. Their speech is

choreographed and they speak as if in one voice; as if their message to Macbeth is

written down somewhere. This makes their language very powerful. We do not know if

at this point he already considers murdering the king, but the witches' predictions are

excellently timed to echo his innermost desires. Banquo is not half as impressed; he

notices that Macbeth starts and is 'rapt withal'. He cannot quite understand why, he thinks

the prospect of being a king is 'fair': “Good Sir, why do you start, and seem to fear /

Things that do sound so fair?” (I.iii.49-50). At this point, Macbeth’s mind is tormented by

the witches’ riddles. “Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more” (I.iii.68), is his

imploring pledge to them. But they leave him unanswered. And even though the witches

have disturbed him, Macbeth does not blame them for his desire to commit such a

murderous endeavour and he visits them again on his own accord. Again they, or better,

their apparitions, seem to foreshadow what lies ahead in Macbeth's future, as it can be

seen in these three instances: “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth: beware Macduff, / Beware

the Thane of Fife.” (IV.i.70-71), “… for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth.”

(IV.i.80/81) and “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high

Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him.” (IV.i.91-93).

Feeling lonely, haunted by the ghost of his best friend and tormented by guilt of

his fiendish actions, Macbeth longs for support and he dubiously obtains it from the

witches. They know the man’s deepest aspirations and his need for encouragement and

preservation so they proceed to play with it. Furthermore, they believe in them, and in

the sense of invulnerability they instill in them. He asks “Then live, Macduff, what need I

fear of thee?” (IV.i.82). He feels confident to fulfill his bloody task yet the Third apparition

admonishing forces him to reinforce that confidence: “That will never be: Who can

impress the forest, bid the tree / Unfix his earthbound root?” (IV.i.94-95).16

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Conclusion

All things considered, it cannot be not be disputed that when the ghost of blood-

boltered Banquo smiles as the eight kings pageant and points to them, he is indicating a

series of actual personages of recent history whom the Jacobean audience would have

recognized on stage, the Stuart dynasty. And so it is their alleged ancestor Banquo whom

the kings resemble as they pass in succession, not their ancestor Duncan. And so it is

their alleged ancestor Banquo who returns as a ghost at the banquet, not their ancestor

Duncan. Presenting the Stuart dynasty and Banquo with such compelling preeminence

and distinction, Shakespeare has done some damage to the coherence of the legend of

Mackbeth and Duncane as he transferred it from the Chronicles to the stage. By inserting

the legend of Banquho into the middle of the legend of Mackbeth, Shakespeare has

forced the traditional structure of this type of play. He has moved the murder of the king

from its usual place, in the middle of the play, to a position of minor importance, and he

has inserted the murder of Banquo in the king's lawful and principal place. Shakespeare’s

words in Macbeth seem to point clearly to that:

“That, when the brains were out, the man would die, / And there an end. But now they

rise gain, / With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, / And push us from our stools”

(III.iv.79-82)

The ghost of Banquo, pushing Macbeth from his stool at the banquet, pushes Duncan's

ghost out of the play so that James might contemplate his Stuart ancestry at its head. At

this reference, James would have been pleased.17

Equally, for most of Shakespeare's contemporary audience, Macbeth would

appear to be at the mercy of the witches and therefore not entirely responsible for his

actions. In this way it might seem easier to arouse sympathy for a person who is not

entirely to blame for their actions, as in the case of Macbeth, whose the tragedy would

16
be more successful provided the popular seventeenth century mentality blames the

witches, as well as Lady Macbeth, for his downfall.18

In conclusion, it is possible to establish references and associations between

Shakespeare’s transposition of the legend of Mackbeth from Holinshed’s Chronicles and

King James’s views on witchcraft and demonology and his own personal background.

However, as far as political implications surrounding this writing cannot be traced through

a solid study of the evidence and might only be imagined and hypothesized. In either

case, it is not surprising that Shakespeare intended to please King James, as he insisted

that Shakespeare's troupe come under his own patronage shortly after his arrival in

London. Thus giving Shakespeare’s company a new name, The King’s Men and

unlimited opportunities to become wealthy and famous.

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Notes

1
Shakespeare, William, and A. R. Braunmuller. Macbeth. New York: Cambridge UP,
2008. 8-9. Print.

2
Holinshed, Raphael, Richard Stanyhurst, Abraham Fleming, John Stow, Francis
Thynne, John Hooker, William Harrison, Hector Boece, and Giraldus. The First and
Second Volumes of Chronicles: Comprising 1 The Description and Historie of England,
2 The Description and Historie of Ireland, 3 The Description and Historie of Scotland:
First Collected and Published by Raphaell Holinshed, William Harrison, and Others: Now
Newlie Augmented and Continued (with Manifold Matters of Singular Note and Worthie
Memorie) to the Yeare 1586. by Iohn Hooker Ali S Vowell Gent and Others. With
Conuenient Tables at the End of These Volumes. London: In Aldersgate Street at the
Signe of the Starre, 1587. Print.

“How and when the Scots, a people of the Scithian and Spanish blood, should arrive
here out of Ireland, & when the Picts should come unto us out of Sarmatia, or from further
towards the north & the Scithian Hyperboreans, as yet it is uncerteine...the Scots did
often adventure hither [i.e. into the British Isles] to rob and steale out of Ireland, and were
finallie called by them Meats or Picts (as the Romans named them, because they painted
their bodies) to helpe them against the Britains, after the which they so planted
themselves in these parts, that unto our time that portion of the land cannot be cleansed
of them. I find also that as these Scots were reputed for the most Scithian-like and
barbarous nation, and longest without letters...For both Diodorus lib. 6. and Strabo lib.4.
doo seeme to speake of a parcell of the Irish nation that should inhabit Britiane in their
time, which were given to the eating of mans flesh, and therefore called
Anthropophagi...it appeareth that those Irish, of whom Strabo and Diodorus doo speake,
are none other than those Scots of whom Jerome speaketh Adversus Jovinianum, lib. 2
who used to feed on the buttocks of boies and womens paps, as delicate dishes.” (5b-
6a)

3
McIlwain, Charles Howard. The Political Works of James I. Cambridge: Harvard UP,
1918. 22. Print.

18
4
Shakespeare, William, and A. R. Braunmuller. Macbeth. New York: Cambridge UP,
2008. 3. Print.

5
Williams, George Walton. ""Macbeth": King James's Play." South Atlantic Review 47.2
(1982): 12-21. Web.

6
Williams, George Walton. ""Macbeth": King James's Play." South Atlantic Review 47.2
(1982): 12-21. Web.

19
7

King James VI and I's treatise on witchcraft, Daemonologie, published in 1597. (© Mary
Evans Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo)

8 Borman, Tracy. "Shakespeare's Macbeth and King James's Witch Hunts." History
Extra. BBC, Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

9
Borman, Tracy. "Shakespeare's Macbeth and King James's Witch Hunts." History
Extra. BBC, Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

A group of supposed witches being beaten in front of King James VI and I, c1610. (Photo
by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

10
Tyson, Donald, and James Carmichael. The Demonology of King James I: Includes
the Original Text of Daemonologie and News from Scotland. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn
Publications, 2011. 130. Print.
“They can raise storms and tempests in the air, either upon sea or land, though not
universally, but in such a particular place and prescribed bounds, as God will permit them
so to trouble: which likewise is very easy to be discerned from any other natural tempests

20
that are meteors, in respect of the sudden and violent raising thereof, together with the
short enduring of the same.”

11
"Witchcraft in Shakespeare's England." The British Library. The British Library, 2016.
Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

12
Williams, George Walton. ""Macbeth": King James's Play." South Atlantic Review 47.2
(1982): 12-21. Web.

13
Goris, Jose. Macbeth and the Witches. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

14
Mabillard, Amanda. The Relationship Between Macbeth and the Witches. Web. 21
Nov. 2016.

15
Shakespeare, William, and A. R. Braunmuller. Macbeth. New York: Cambridge UP,
2008. Print.

Hecate Have I not reason, beldams as you are,

16
Goris, Jose. Macbeth and the Witches. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

17
Williams, George Walton. ""Macbeth": King James's Play." South Atlantic Review 47.2
(1982): 12-21. Web.

18
Riedel, Jennifer. "The Witches' Influence on Macbeth." Macbeth and the Witches.
Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

21
Works Cited

 Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy; Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King

Lear, Macbeth. London: Macmillan, 1905. Print.

 Holinshed, Raphael, et al. The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles:

Comprising 1 The Description and Historie of England, 2 The Description and

Historie of Ireland, 3 The Description and Historie of Scotland: First Collected and

Published by Raphaell Holinshed, William Harrison, and Others: Now Newlie

Augmented and Continued (with Manifold Matters of Singular Note and Worthie

Memorie) to the Yeare 1586. by Iohn Hooker Ali S Vowell Gent and Others. With

Conuenient Tables at the End of These Volumes. London: In Aldersgate Street

at the Signe of the Starre, 1587. Print.

 Kott, Jan. Shakespeare, Our Contemporary. Garden City, NY: Doubleday,

1964. Print.

 McIlwain, Charles Howard. The Political Works of James I. Cambridge: Harvard

UP, 1918. Print.

 Shakespeare, William, and A. R. Braunmuller. Macbeth. New York: Cambridge

UP, 2008. Print.

 Tyson, Donald, and James Carmichael. The Demonology of King James I.

Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2011. Print.

 Williams, George Walton. ""Macbeth": King James's Play." South Atlantic Review

47.2 (1982): 12-21. Web.

22