Macbeth (Cliffs Complete)

218 Pages·2000·1.82 MB·English

by  William Shakespeare

CLIFFSCOMPLETE
Shakespeare’s
Macbeth
Edited by Sidney Lamb
Associate Professor of English
Sir George Williams University, Montreal
Complete Text Commentary Glossary
+ +
Commentary by Christopher L. Morrow
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CLIFFSCOMPLETE
Shakespeare’s
Macbeth
About the Author Publisher’s Acknowledgments
Christopher L. Morrow is currently a doctoral student at Texas A&M Uni- Editorial
versity where he is working on a dissertation in Early Modern drama. Mor- Project Editor: Joan Friedman
row received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wyoming in 1996 Acquisitions Editor: Gregory W. Tubach
and his Master of Arts from Texas A&M University in 1998. He is also Copy Editor: Billie A. Williams
currently a graduate assistant with the World Shakespeare Bibliographyas Editorial Manager: Kristin A. Cocks
well as a volunteer graduate assistant with the Seventeenth-Century News. Illustrator: DD Dowden
Special Help: Patricia Yuu Pan
Production
Indexer: Sharon Hilgenberg
Proofreader: Rachel Garvey
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CliffsComplete Macbeth
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CLIFFSCOMPLETE
Shakespeare’s
Macbeth
CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Act I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Act II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Act III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Act IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Act V. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
CliffsComplete Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
CliffsComplete Resource Center. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
CliffsComplete Reading Group
Discussion Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

CLIFFSCOMPLETE
Shakespeare’s
Macbeth
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Macbeth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction to William Shakespeare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction to Early Modern England. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Introduction to Macbeth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Character Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
ActI Scene 1 A desert heath. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Scene 2 A camp near Forres. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Scene 3 A heath. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Scene 4 Forres. A room in the palace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Scene 5 Inverness. Macbeth’s castle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Scene 6 The same. Before the castle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Scene 7 The same. A room in the castle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
ActII Scene 1 Inverness. Court within the castle. . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Scene 2 The same. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Scene 3 The same. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Scene 4 The same. Without the castle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
ActIII Scene 1 Forres. A room in the palace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Scene 2 The same. Another room in the palace. . . . . . . . . 96
Scene3 The same. A park with a road
leading to the palace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Scene 4 The same. A room of state in the palace. . . . . . . 102
Scene5 A heath. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Scene6 Forres. A room in the palace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
viii CliffsComplete Macbeth
ActIV Scene 1 A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. . . . 119
Scene2 Fife. Macduff’s castle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Scene 3 England. Before the king’s palace. . . . . . . . . . . . 133
ActV Scene 1 Dunsinane. A room in the castle. . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Scene2 The country near Dunsinane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Scene3 Dunsinane. A room in the castle. . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Scene4 Country near Birnam Wood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Scene5 Dunsinane. Within the castle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Scene6 The same. A plain before the castle. . . . . . . . . . 165
Scene7 The same. Another part of the plain. . . . . . . . . 167
Scene8 The same. Another part of the plain. . . . . . . . . 170
CliffsComplete Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
CliffsComplete Resource Center. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
CliffsComplete Reading Group
Discussion Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Shakespeare’s
MACBETH
INTRODUCTION TO WILLIAM Anti-Stratfordians — modern scholars who
SHAKESPEARE question the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays —
have used this lack of information to argue that
William Shakespeare, or the “Bard” as people fondly
William Shakespeare either never existed or, if he did
call him, permeates almost all aspects of our society.
exist, did not write any of the plays we attribute to
He can be found in our classrooms, on our televisions,
him. They believe that another historical figure, such
in our theatres, and in our cinemas. Speaking to us
as Francis Bacon or Queen Elizabeth I, used the
through his plays, Shakespeare comments on his life
name as a cover. Whether or not a man named
and culture, as well as our own. Actors still regularly
William Shakespeare ever actually existed is ulti-
perform his plays on the modern stage and screen. The
mately secondary to the recognition that the group
1990s, for example, saw the release of cinematic ver-
of plays bound together by that name does exist and
sions of Romeo and Juliet,Hamlet, Othello, A Mid-
continues to educate, enlighten, and entertain us.
summer Night’s Dream, and many more of his works.
In addition to the popularity of Shakespeare’s
plays as he wrote them, other writers have modern-
ized his works to attract new audiences. For example,
West Side Storyplaces Romeo and Julietin New York
City, and A Thousand Acressets King Learin Iowa corn
country. Beyond adaptations and productions, his life
and works have captured our cultural imagination.
The twentieth century witnessed the production of a
play and film about two minor characters from Shake-
speare’s Hamletin Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
Deadand a fictional movie about Shakespeare’s early
life and poetic inspiration in Shakespeare in Love.
Despite his monumental presence in our culture,
Shakespeare remains enigmatic. He does not tell us
which plays he wrote alone, on which plays he col-
laborated with other playwrights, or which versions
of his plays to read and perform. Furthermore, with
only a handful of documents available about his life,
he does not tell us much about Shakespeare the per-
son, forcing critics and scholars to look to historical
An engraved portrait of Shakespeare by an unknown artist, ca. 1607.
references to uncover the true-life great dramatist. Culver Pictures, Inc./SuperStock