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Duncan I became king of Scotland after the death of his grandfather, Malcolm II, in 1034, [1] and also held the title king of Strathclyde. Malcolm was the last descendant of the male lineage descended from Kenneth I to hold the kingship, and Duncan ascending to the throne on a claim descending from his mother was highly unusual for the period.
Macbeth was a favourite of the seventeenth-century diarist Samuel Pepys, who saw the play on 5 November 1664 ("admirably acted"), 28 December 1666 ("most excellently acted"), ten days later on 7 January 1667 ("though I saw it lately, yet [it] appears a most excellent play in all respects"), on 19 April 1667 ("one of the best plays for a stage ...
Lord Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis and quickly the Thane of Cawdor, is the title character and main protagonist in William Shakespeare's Macbeth (c. 1603–1607). The character is loosely based on the historical king Macbeth of Scotland and is derived largely from the account in Holinshed's Chronicles (1577), a compilation of British history.
King Duncan is a father-figure who is very generous and kind. Duncan is also firm ("No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive / Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death / And with his former title greet Macbeth." [1]), insightful ("There's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face."
Daniel Amneus argued that Macbeth as it survives is a revision of an earlier play, in which Duncan granted Macbeth not only the title of Thane of Cawdor, but the "greater honor" [9] of Prince of Cumberland (i.e. heir to the throne of Scotland). Banquo's silence may be a survival from the posited earlier play, in which Macbeth was the legitimate ...
Duncan welcomes and praises Macbeth, declaring he will spend the night at Macbeth's castle. Later that night, Macbeth expresses discomfort with killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth overrides her husband's objections by challenging his manhood and persuades him to kill Duncan. Offscreen, Macbeth murders Duncan but returns back to his wife with the ...
Three Witches, MacBeth, by James Henry Nixon, British Museum (1831). The concept of the Three Witches themselves may have been influenced by an Old Norse skaldic poem, [5] in which twelve valkyries weave and choose who is to be slain at the Battle of Clontarf (fought outside Dublin in 1014).
Macduff begins to suspect Macbeth of regicide when Macbeth says, "O, yet I do repent me of my fury / That I did kill them" (2.3.124–125). Macduff's name does not appear in this scene; rather, Banquo refers to him as "Dear Duff" (2.3.105). In 2.4 Macbeth has left for Scone, the ancient royal city where Scottish kings were crowned.