Macbeth Read Online Free PDF Page A

about which directions are of which kind, but the procedure is intended as a reminder to the reader and the actorthat Shakespearean stage directions are often dependent upon editorial inference alone and are not set in stone. We also depart from editorial tradition in sometimes admitting uncertainty and thus printing permissive stage directions, such as an Aside? (often a line may be equally effective as an aside or a direct address—it is for each production or reading to make its own decision) or a may exit or a piece of business placed between arrows to indicate that it may occur at various different moments within a scene.
    Line Numbers in the left margin are editorial, for reference and to key the explanatory and textual notes.
    Explanatory Notes at the foot of each page explain allusions and gloss obsolete and difficult words, confusing phraseology, occasional major textual cruces, and so on. Particular attention is given to non-standard usage, bawdy innuendo, and technical terms (e.g. legal and military language). Where more than one sense is given, commas indicate shades of related meaning, slashes alternative or double meanings.
    Textual Notes at the end of the play indicate major departures from the Folio. They take the following form: the reading of our text is given in bold and its source given after an equals sign, with “F2” indicating a reading that derives from the Second Folio of 1632, “F3” one that derives from the Third Folio of 1663–64, and “Ed” that it derives from the subsequent editorial tradition. The rejected Folio (“F”) reading is then given. Thus for Act 3 Scene 6 line 25: “ son = Ed. F = Sonnes” means that the Folio text refers to Duncan’s two sons, where the context clearly demands one, so we have corrected to the singular. It is possible, of course, in this case that the mistake is Shakespeare’s, not the printer’s: he might have forgotten that he sent Donalbain to Ireland and only Malcolm to England. The editorial task is a never-ending process of conjecture and debate.

KEY FACTS
    AUTHORSHIP: There is no doubt about Shakespeare’s authorship of the bulk of the play, but it is probable that the printed text bears the marks of some theatrical revision, possibly by THOMAS MIDDLETON. In particular, the scenes involving Hecate seem to be additions by Middleton.
    MAJOR PARTS: (
with percentage of lines/number of speeches/scenes onstage
) Macbeth (29%/146/15), Lady Macbeth (11%/59/9), Malcolm (9%/40/8), Macduff (7%/59/7), Ross (6%/39/7), Banquo (5%/33/7), First Witch (3%/23/4), Lennox (3%/21/6), Duncan (3%/18/3), Second Witch (2%/15/3), Third Witch 2%/13/3, Porter (2%/4/1), Wife of Macduff (2%/19/1), Scottish Doctor (2%/19/2).
    LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 95% verse, 5% prose.
    DATE: 1606? Certainly Jacobean rather than Elizabethan, to judge from its several compliments to King James. Performed at the Globe in April 1611 and perhaps at court in August or December 1606. References to “equivocation” and other allusions suggest written soon after trial of Gunpowder Plot conspirators (January–March 1606). The ship
Tiger
, mentioned in Act 1 Scene 3, sailed for the east in 1604 and returned after a terrible voyage in the summer of 1606.
    SOURCES: Based on account of reigns of Duncan and Makbeth in “The Chronicles of Scotland,” from vol. 2 of Raphael Holinshed’s
Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland
(1587 edition), with some use of material elsewhere in the Scottish chronicles. Shows awareness of the Stuart dynasty’s claim to lineage from Banquo. Some of the imagery is influenced by the language of Seneca’s tragedies. Hecate scenes incorporate material from Thomas Middleton’s play
The Witch
.
    TEXT: 1623 Folio is the only early printed text. Its brevity suggests possible theatrical cutting. Good quality of printing, though with severe problems of lineation.

THE TRAGEDY OF
MACBETH

                        LIST OF PARTS

The Songs (apparently