| The real Scottish king Macbeth was a far cry from the great Shakespearean villain, but his story was even more fascinating, presenter Tony Robinson discovers in his continuing series which uncovers the myths behind legendary British heroes.
The original and real King Macbeth lived in the 11th century and reigned from 1040 to 1057. He was not the vicious, jealous, superstitious murderer Shakespeare painted, but he took a path to the throne that was just as bloody, as The Real Macbeth reveals. Shakespeare borrowed the story from several tales in Holinshed’s Chronicles, a popular history of the British Isles well known to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. In Chronicles, a man named Donwald finds several of his family put to death by his king, Duff, for dealing with witches. After being pressured by his wife, he and four of his servants kill the king in his own house. In Chronicles, Macbeth is portrayed as struggling to support the kingdom in the face of King Duncan’s ineptitude. He and Banquo meet the three witches, who make exactly the same prophecies as in Shakespeare’s version. Macbeth and Banquo then together plot the murder of Duncan, at Lady Macbeth’s urging. Macbeth has a long, ten-year reign before eventually being overthrown by Macduff and Malcolm. The parallels between the two versions are clear. However, some scholars think that George Buchanan‘s Rerum Scoticarum Historia matches Shakespeare’s version more closely. Buchanan’s work was available in Latin in Shakespeare’s day. |
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