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Sources of Play

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As this site has its so-called Bible, Macbeth, the Bible for Macbeth was the Holinshed Chronicles, shown above. To know the truth of Macbeth and Stenderism, one must seek and be the source.

The chief source of Macbeth used by Shakespeare was Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and whose account of Scotland was derived from the Latin Scotorum Historiae. Shakespeare used the Chronicles report about Macbeth's encounter with witches and his usurping of the throne, although altered considerably. Another history of Scotland that may have influenced the development of Macbeth's character was George Buchanan's Latin Rerum Scotiarum Historiae.

There are many other sources contributing to Macbeth in many other ways. For the depiction of the witches, Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft(1584) and King James I, Daemonologie(1599). For the remarks Macbeth made about dogs and men in Act 3 Scene 1 lines 91-100, the playwright got it from Latin memoirs of Erasmus, Colloquia(1500). Plays echoed in Macbeth include Samuel Daniel's The Queen's Arcadia (1605), John Marston's Sophonisba (1606), and Matthew Gwinne's Tres Sibyllae (1605). Also, Shakespeare exploited the plays of Seneca in Macbeth.

My goodness! That was quite a bit of dry fact. But it is a must if you wish to be a true master of Macbeth and a valuable asset to enlightenment. Macbeth