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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.
The traditional origin is said to be a curse set upon the play by a coven of witches, angry at Shakespeare for using a real spell. [2] One hypothesis for the origin of this superstition is that Macbeth, being a popular play, was commonly put on by theatres in financial trouble, or that the high production costs of Macbeth put theatres in financial trouble.
One of the first-recorded uses of this phrase was by the character Lady Macbeth in Act 3, Scene 2 of the tragedy play Macbeth (early 17th century), by the English playwright William Shakespeare, who said: "Things without all remedy Should be without regard: what's done, is done" [2] and "Give me your hand. What's done cannot be undone.
[132] [133] [134] In Macbeth, the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies, [135] uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne until their own guilt destroys them in turn. [136] In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure.
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 ...
Actors also avoid even quoting the lines from Macbeth before performances, particularly the Witches' incantations. Outside a theatre and after a performance, the play can be spoken of openly. If an actor speaks the word "Macbeth", or quotes the play, in a theatre other than in performance, they must perform a ritual to remove the curse.
He is the father of two youthful sons (Malcolm and Donalbain), and the victim of a well-plotted regicide in a power grab by his trusted captain Macbeth. The origin of the character lies in a narrative of the historical Donnchad mac Crinain , King of Scots , in Raphael Holinshed 's 1587 The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland , a ...
The following list of plays including references to Macbeth is ordered alphabetically. Wale Ogunyemi's adaptation, A'are Akogun, was first performed in Nigeria in 1968 and mixed the English and Yoruba languages. [1] Eugène Ionesco's Macbett satirized Macbeth as a meaningless succession of treachery and slaughter. [2]